From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: News stories on African Famine
Date: 14 Sep 92 21:27:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700469:000:3550
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Sep 14 14:27:00 1992


/* Written  9:28 am  Sep 14, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
/* ---------- "News stories on African Famine" ---------- */
UPn  09/14  Report: 
Somalia starvation could spread to 60 million throughout Africa  

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Relief experts said Monday the starvation in
Somalia is beginning to emerge in other parts of Africa and
warned that the lives of nearly 60 million Africans are in
danger.  "Not only is the continent experiencing the worst
drought of the century, civil wars in Somalia and Mozambique are
compounding the situation," said David Beckmann, president of
Bread for the World.  "The lives of nearly 60 million are in
danger," he added.  Bread for the World, founded in 1972 by a
group of Protestants and Catholics in New York City, now has some
45,000 members who lobby Congress to bring about changes in U.S.
policies to address hunger and poverty.  InterAction, a coalition
of 136 international humanitarian agencies, reported that as many
as 23 million risk starvation in eastern Africa, 30 million in
southern Africa and 7 million in western Africa. The coalition
said the American public is providing only 3 percent of the
assistance they contributed during the 1984-85 African famine.  

The group of experts just returned from Africa. They said between
2, 000 and 5,000 people die daily in Somalia despite emergency
relief and drought assessment. They said 3.1 million people are
at immediate risk of starvation in Mozambique.  In the past 12
months, they said, 25 percent of children under 5 years old died
in Somalia; 200 children die of starvation daily in the nation's
capital of Mogadishu. Another 60 percent of Somalia's children
suffer from extreme malnutrition.  

In southern Africa, 40 percent to 90 percent of this year's crops
have been destroyed by drought, while in Zimbabwe 2 million
cattle are expected to die by November because of the drought. 
In Mozambique, 1 million people have died as a result of war in
the past decade, the group said.  "The current situation in
Somalia is horrifying," said Philip Johnston, president of CARE,
the international relief organization. "I saw children whose
thighs and legs were no bigger in circumference than my wrist.
Their bodies had no muscle mass, only bone and skin covering it.
It is tremendously difficult to get food through to Somalia's
desperately hungry people."  

The coalition called for the United States to play a "much more
active role in seeking peace in both Somalia and Mozambique,"
adding that President Bush "should encourage the immediate
deployment of 3,500 U.N. security forces into Somalia" to help
relief efforts in the countries.  They also urged the Senate to
approve $80 million of disaster aid for Africa to meet emegrency
needs for seeds, water and transportation.  "As many as 30
million people are at immediate risk of malnutrition, disease or
starvation in southern Africa as a result of what may be the most
severe drought of the century," the coalition said. "The United
Nations estimates that the crisis in southern Africa could
eventually affect a staggering 115 million people if relief and
preventative measures aren't sufficient."  Sharon Pauling, Africa
policy analyst for Bread for the World, said, "Abhorrent
conditions which we tolerate for Africans are conditions we
clearly are not willing to tolerate for ourselves or for
Europeans. We've become comfortable with the notion that Africans
can adjust to dehumanizing conditions. This hypocrisy is
inadmissable as the world has the capacity to prevent famine."
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