Under-funded African Countries facing Famine Disaster, says UN by ABC News / UN News 8:14am 11th Sep, 2005   September 10, 2005. (ABC News)    United Nations aid agencies say their appeals for funds to ward off famine in several African countries are being ignored.    They are especially concerned at the total lack of response from donors to their call for $US88 million for Malawi, where the UN believes at least four million people are facing famine.    Christiane Berthiaume, from the UN World Food Program, says that with half a dozen countries across southern Africa suffering their fourth year of drought, the situation is becoming desperate.    "Please give us right now the money before it becomes a catastrophe," she said. "Right now, WFP needs $US190 million to feed more than 8 million people. It's a huge task. "Can you imagine this is almost the population of London and those people are in dire need of food?"    9 September 2005    Donations urgently needed to aid the hungry. (UN News)    Mozambique: funding shortfall threatens hundreds of thousands with hunger. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Mozambique will go hungry unless the international community helps fill a dramatic funding shortfall, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.    “We urgently need $19 million to keep essential feeding programmes going for 430,000 people in Mozambique, but we need the assistance now,” WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa Mike Sackett said, noting that the agency is now reaching only just over a third of those in need, and the number will rise sharply from November.    “Southern Mozambique is particularly hard hit by the food shortages, and of course, HIV/AIDS is also exacting a terrible toll on the most vulnerable households,” he added.    Across the region, WFP still needs $191 million to feed up to 8.5 million people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia through the next lean season, which traditionally runs from December to April.    The situation in the region is considered so serious that Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote to 27 heads of State, the European Commission and the African Development Bank last month to raise the alarm for urgent funding to “avert a catastrophe.”    Yesterday Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland noted that the UN’s $88 million appeal for Malawi issued last week has received zero pledges so far.    Nearly every country in the region is experiencing significant price hikes in staple foods, meaning that the poorest people will be increasingly unable to afford to eat as the lean season nears. Price increases are common during a country’s lean season when food stocks are scarcest, but rarely do they start this early in the year.    “It is alarming that we’re seeing so many negative signs across Southern Africa so early in the season,” Mr. Sackett said. “All countries are affected, but in Mozambique the situation is being compounded by a bleak outlook for the next agricultural season as water levels have significantly dropped.”
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