IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 421 
Urging the Administration to develop more effective and timely responses 
to famine in Africa, especially efforts to end the conflicts in South 
Sudan, Nigeria, and other countries that cause or exacerbate famine. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 28, 2017 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself and Ms. BASS) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the Administration to develop more effective and 
timely responses to famine in Africa, especially efforts 
to end the conflicts in South Sudan, Nigeria, and other 
countries that cause or exacerbate famine. 
Whereas famine is defined as a drastic, wide-ranging food 
shortage in which one in five households have an extreme 
lack of food and other basic needs, where starvation, 
death and destitution are evident despite humanitarian 
assistance; 
Whereas famine is largely caused by conflict in countries such 
as South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia, where the inter-
ruption of the planting-harvesting cycle has prevented in-
ternal production of food; 
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Whereas there are 1,800,000 refugees from the conflict in 
South Sudan in neighboring countries and 2,000,000 in-
ternally displaced persons in that country, and rapidly 
growing numbers of South Sudanese refugees are placing 
a toll on Uganda and other countries hosting them as 
donor contributions have not kept pace and food rations 
have been cut at times by 50 percent; 
Whereas South Sudan is experiencing heightened levels of 
food insecurity with as high as 27 percent of the popu-
lation in some areas facing famine, and the United Na-
tions estimates that at least 4,900,000 people in South 
Sudan, more than 40 percent of the population, are in 
urgent need of food; 
Whereas, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, 
more than 30,000 lives have been lost in violence related 
to Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency; 
Whereas 14,000,000 people in northeast Nigeria are in ur-
gent need of humanitarian assistance, including more 
than 8,000,000 children, and almost 6,000,000 people 
are also facing severe food insecurity, and almost 
9,000,000 Nigerians are projected to suffer from food in-
security by August 2017, including more than 3,000,000 
people living in the northeast state of Borno, where Boko 
Haram is active; 
Whereas increasing attacks by Fulani militia on farmers in 
Nigeria’s Middle Belt threaten to further exacerbate hun-
ger in the region; 
Whereas more than 1,000,000 people are already internally 
displaced within Somalia, there are an estimated 881,000 
Somali refugees, and the anticipated scale of population 
displacement from Somalia due to pervasive conflict and 
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the threat of starvation will increase refugee flows 
throughout the region and into Europe; 
Whereas, according to the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Somalia is the fourth 
largest source of refugees in the world, after Afghanistan, 
Syria, and South Sudan; 
Whereas in Somalia, nearly 6,200,000 people are currently in 
need of humanitarian assistance, and more than 
2,900,000 people are facing crisis or emergency levels of 
acute food insecurity due to conflict, including nearly 
1,000,000 children under the age of five; 
Whereas conflict in countries such as the Central African Re-
public, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali 
could cause or exacerbate famine should fighting disrupt 
planting-harvesting cycles and markets where locally pro-
duced food can be purchased; and 
Whereas drought threatens to exacerbate food insecurity in 
countries ranging from Angola to Sudan to Mozambique 
to Madagascar: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That— 
(1) the United States Government should— 
(A) use all available leverage, including 
that of international partners, to achieve last-
ing, comprehensive cease-fires in cases of con-
flict; 
(B) work with governments to facilitate 
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration 
of combatants into a unified, professional na-
tional army or assistance in preparing former 
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combatants to engage in productive occupations 
that eliminate the impulse to resort to banditry 
or other illegal pursuits; 
(C) use the Global Magnitsky Human 
Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 
note) to sanction individuals or entities respon-
sible for initiating or prolonging conflict, endan-
gering humanitarian aid workers, or preventing 
delivery of humanitarian aid; 
(D) apply all available weather and crop 
information to more accurately predict incipient 
drought and to determine the likelihood of fam-
ine in areas of conflict; 
(E) collaborate with other donor nations to 
accelerate the provision of food, clean water, 
medicine, and shelter to those in need; 
(F) expand the prepositioning of aid com-
modities in safe zones as close as possible to the 
region of famine to expedite their provision; 
(G) provide assistance to farmers, herders, 
and fishermen to encourage resilience in the 
long run and allow them to survive in the short 
term; and 
(H) use cash transfers to more quickly 
provide food aid where local markets exist in 
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order to meet food needs in a more timely man-
ner and to support the functioning of local mar-
kets; and 
(2) governments in affected African countries 
should— 
(A) establish effective cease-fires and use 
force thereafter only when government forces or 
facilities or civilians are under attack; 
(B) publicly identify individuals and enti-
ties that actively threaten peace and safety and 
take police action against those who do so in 
areas under government control; 
(C) work with civil society, especially faith- 
based groups, to help end conflict at the grass-
roots level, effect reconciliation and deliver food, 
clean water, medicine, and shelter; 
(D) make every effort to facilitate the ex-
peditious delivery of food, clean water, medi-
cine, and shelter and do not erect bureaucratic 
impediments to the delivery of such aid; 
(E) contribute from their own resources to 
the greatest extent possible to provide food, 
clean water, medicine, and shelter to their own 
citizens; 
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