AU gets urgent help for Niger
2005-07-23 14:13
Addis Ababa - The African Union has announced on Saturday that it was allocating $1m from its Special Emergency Assistance Fund for drought and famine relief in Niger.
The AU expressed in a statement "deep sorrow" over the drought faced by the central Africa state, compounded with locust outbreaks, that have affected over 3.6 million people in the country, mostly children.
It noted that the emergency problem in Niger was likely to increase unless urgent co-ordinated actions were taken to bring the situation under control.
About $25m of the $30.7m needed in emergency relief for Niger had been secured from donors so far, the United Nations Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Jan Egeland disclosed on Friday, according to agency reports from Geneva.
Egeland said he was confident that the remaining amount needed to meet the target set to cover the food needs of the affected people in Niger would be met shortly.
He told reporters in Geneva that the UN Emergency Relief had received more in the past 10 days that it had in the previous 10 months in response for its appeal for international support to deal with the devastation in Niger.
He attributed this to international television film footage of the images of dying children, which he said to have made the world wake up to the gravity of the prevailing drought and famine in Niger. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA