UN aid agencies need US$4.4 billion for famine relief in four countries

UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN aid agencies need US$ 4.4 billion in emergency funding to address famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday.

More than 20 million people face starvation in the four countries and action is needed now to avert a humanitarian disaster, Guterres told a news conference at UN headquarters.

“We need US$ 4.4 billion by the end of March to avert a catastrophe,” he said.

So far, the United Nations has raised US$ 90 million to fund a global response to the four famine alerts, which are unprecedented in recent decades.

South Sudan on Monday declared a famine in parts of the north, while Fews Net, the famine early warning system, has said that some remote areas of northeast Nigeria are affected by starvation since late last year.

There has only been one famine since 2000, in Somalia.

At least 260,000 people died in the 2011 disaster – half of them children under the age of five, according to the UN World Food Program.

The UN children’s agency Unicef this week said almost 1.4 million children acutely malnourished in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen could die as food shortages worsen in the coming months.

Of the four famine alerts, only one – Somalia – is caused by drought, while the other three stem from conflicts, described as ‘man-made food crises.’

In Yemen, where war has been raging for nearly two years, about 7.3 million people need food aid now, in the “largest food insecurity emergency in the world,” said Guterres. — AFP