LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN AFRICA NEED URGENT GLOBAL ASSISTANCE, AS FOOD INSECURITY DEEPENS

LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN AFRICA NEED URGENT GLOBAL ASSISTANCE,

AS FOOD INSECURITY DEEPENS

NEW YORK, 17 August (Office of High Representative) -- “Millions of people face the impending crisis of food insecurity in the least developed countries in Africa.  Besides Niger, the countries that need urgent international assistance are Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Zimbabwe.”

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, appealed to the international community for urgent assistance to millions of starving Africans in the least developed countries, especially children, who need food now.

“I would like to draw the world’s attention to the alarming situation of men, women and children in Niger and its neighbouring least developed countries who have resorted to eating leaves and grass as a result of a double-disaster:  a severe drought and the invasion of locusts destroying nearly 80 per cent of their crop”, he said.

Lack of food security is the typical face of poverty for both urban and rural people in least developed countries (LDCs).  In 2001 at the United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels, the international community pledged to provide adequate food aid to LDCs facing severe food shortages, including food emergencies.  “That pledge, that commitment has yet to be redeemed.  The crisis in Niger should serve as a warning bell to the constraints of the 36 countries in Africa, out of 50 Least Developed Countries, facing food shortages”, Mr. Chowdhury cautioned.

In Burkina Faso people have been forced to eat tree leaves.  Consequently, children are suffering from malnutrition and diarrhoea.  In Eritrea widespread hunger and malnutrition prevails as a result of five years of drought.

As in Niger, Mali has been badly hit by drought and locusts destroying their crops.  Relief services on the ground in Mali report that 2.2 million people (20 per cent of the population) need urgent food aid.  Children between the ages of six months and five years, prone to malnutrition, are most likely to die of hunger.

Underscoring the urgency of the situation, Mr. Chowdhury said, “Although Mali was one of the 18 countries to get debt relief from the G-8 decision, at this time the country needs assistance with food, medicine and essential supplies.”

Again in Mauritania, rural families are facing starvation and malnutrition is widespread.   Senegal too is faced with the crisis of desperate hunger caused primarily by the devastating locust invasion and destruction of crops last year.

“In a few weeks world leaders will gather at the United Nations for the 2005 Summit.  The Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved globally, unless we tangibly assist these vulnerable least developed countries”, Mr. Chowdhury said.

“The world must respond to this crisis quickly and generously to ensure that this situation is contained”, he added.

For further information, please contact:  Nosh Nalavala, Media Officer, United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, tel.:  917 367-2471, e-mail:  nalavala@un.org.  Website: http://www.un.org/ohrlls.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record