Citation
Civil strife has replaced drought as Africa's main cause of starvation,
according to a United Nations report published yesterday which shows
that 11 of the 20 states facing exceptional food emergencies
have
been affected by war or internal fighting.
Peace talks yesterday between 15 Somali factions in Addis Ababa, the
Ethiopian capital, appeared near collapse after the group led by
General Muhammad Farrah Aidid accused the UN sponsors of misinformed
meddling in Somali politics.
The starvation report says that the countries most in need of
assistance in addition to Somalia are Malawi and Mozambique. Malawi has
had to cope with a vast influx of more than a million refugees from the
Mozambican civil war. Also Kenya has absorbed 400,000 refugees from
Somalia in the past year as well as enduring a severe drought in the
north.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have enjoyed bumper harvests in the past year, but
will have to seek international help to feed the 1.1m refugees from
fighting in the southern Ogaden region and Somalia, and from Ethiopia's
own civil war. The end of that conflict, in 1991, has led to the
demobilisation of 840,000 soldiers, and they and their dependants all
need feeding. Drought in Ethiopia has affected 2.4m people, causing
devastating crop and livestock losses.
Last year, Angola was the only southern African country to receive
reasonable levels of rainfall, but the recent upsurge in fighting
between government and rebel forces has resulted in the country facing
widespread malnutrition. Angola will need 120,000 tonnes of food from
donors; 80,000 have been pledged for this year.
Launching the report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the
agency's director, Edouard Saouma, said yesterday: International
agencies must spread the aid net wider if the countries most affected
by civil war and drought are to make it through 1993 without widespread
loss of life.
Somalia has been the worst affected by civil war, which is the root
cause for the deaths of at least 350,000 people and threatens two
million more lives. However, the UN report noted that the prospects for
recovery and for effective distribution of food had improved since the
arrival of the American-led humanitarian intervention force.
General Aidid's claim of UN interference in Somali politics came after
rival clans fought on the northwestern outskirts of Mogadishu the
previous evening. The clash pitted the Murusade clan, loosely allied to
the north Mogadishu warlord, Ali Mahdi Muhammad, against the Suleiman
clan, linked to General Aidid. The dispute is partly over land rights
and partly a reflection of anger among the Murusade that they are not
represented at the UN-sponsored peace talks.
Yesterday American marines, trying to restore order to the capital,
shot and badly wounded a Somali gunman north of Mogadishu after he
fired at them.
UN officials in Addis Ababa said they were trying to prevent General
Aidid from pulling out of the two-day meeting in the Ethiopian capital.
His Somali National Alliance said: UN bureaucrats have failed time and
again to demonstrate an understanding of the intricate problems
of
Somalia.
The African tragedy that has perhaps received least attention has been
that in Sudan where, due to drought and the civil war in the south,
three million people will need 324,000 tonnes of food this year.
Distributing aid will remain difficult in the south because of fighting
between the Muslim fundamentalist government and factions of the
Christian and animist Sudanese People's Liberation Army.
Last year five aid workers and journalists were murdered in southern
Sudan shortly before aid work was suspended in the area because of
fighting and insecurity. Relief has recently been resumed but on a
smaller scale.
The report also said that civil strife in Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone
and Zaire was the main cause of malnutrition and starvation there.
Africa needs 5.2m tonnes of food aid this year for more than 20m
people. Food aid pledges (from foreign donors) for 1992/1993 cover
some 80% of the estimated requirements ... however, less than half the
pledges have actually been delivered and there is an urgent need for
donors to expedite shipments,
the report said.
By Sam Kiley in Nairobi and Our Foreign Staff.
