Read at : Google Alert – images of the Africa Drought
Will West Africa’s drought be a repeat disaster?
Johannesburg— Globe and Mail Update
After thousands died needlessly because of the slow response to the Somalia famine last year, the world’s donor nations now face another crisis: a drought in West Africa where up to 500,000 could die if no help arrives.
Failed harvests and lack of rain are affecting millions of people in the Sahel region of eight countries in West Africa. The crisis is made worse by rising food prices and the exodus of 200,000 migrant workers from Libya and Ivory Coast after the wars there.
Now the question is whether the world’s wealthy nations will respond in time – or whether they will repeat the disaster of the Somalia famine, when early warnings were ignored for nearly a year before aid was finally sent.
The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, says it needs $100-million this year to save the lives of 500,000 children in the Sahel. It wants to provide food to a million people in the region, and so far it only has the resources to feed half of them.
“We’re buying food as quickly as we can,” said David Gressly, the regional director of UNICEF in West Africa.
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