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Ignoring the Plight of Africa Yet Again?

"In Nairobi today, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland launched an appeal for $426 million to support the urgent needs of more than 8 million people in mortal danger from a drought in the Horn of Africa that shows no sign of relenting.

"I know we launch many appeals, and there are many areas of the world needing assistance, but I can not underline too much how important this is," Kevin Kennedy, the Director of the Complex Emergency Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in New York of the crisis affecting Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia."

When will the world take the plight of Africans seriously? The sheer scale of people at risk is horrendous. As the full piece on allAfrica.com reveals [read it here] the 8 million people referred to above are those at "immediate" risk. Altogether some 15 million people face starvation and a myriad of associated problems.

Update: Read another report on the same topic, this time in Al Jareeza, here. As quoted in the Al Jareeza piece, does this not say it all?...

"It would be evident if, say, all of Scandinavia faced collective starvation, the world would really respond"

Jan Egeland,
UN humanitarian chief

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