26/8/2005
UN Raises Alarm Over The Prospect Of Famine In Malawi

With food assistance finally beginning to flow into Niger, the United Nations emergency relief co-ordinator this week raised the alarm over another looming African food crisis. In the southern African country of Malawi, some four and a half million people will be facing food shortages by the end of the year, he said.

“We are trying also now to bring out early warnings for Malawi," said Jan Egeland. "We already see that 45 per cent of children under five are stunted due to malnutrition, diarrhoea and other diseases. Twenty-two per cent are clearly underweight.”

He said that the international donor community and the United Nations were now making significant progress with efforts to get assistance to the needy in drought-stricken Niger where the food crisis had put nearly 3 million people are at risk. But even here the UN World Food Programme (WFP) had expressed concern about signs of a slowdown in support, he said.

Despite a surge of support following international television broadcasts chronicling the desperate plight of many young children in Niger, WFP has received only two donations in the past two weeks, it said this week. Moreover, its emergency operations remain less than 50 per cent funded, with $29.6 million still needed. The food crisis has arisen as a result of continuing drought and, more recently, crop damage from locusts. These have led to famine conditions for an estimated one third of its more than 11 million people.

To date the UN has received $40.4 million of a total donor appeal of $80.9 million. UN agencies have delivered some 6,000 tons of food to Niger.