By ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 20, 2006
LONDON (AP) – British charity Oxfam on Thursday launched an appeal for 20 million pounds (US$35 million, ?29 million) to help 11 million people at risk of hunger in East Africa.
The group said one of the worst droughts in a decade had devastated livestock and threatened nomadic herding communities in countries including Kenya and Somalia.
It said more than 70 percent of cattle in Somalia had died. Recent rains have failed to reverse the drought and have increased the risk of disease, Oxfam said.
The group’s director, Barbara Stocking, said the slowly unfolding crisis had attracted less attention than disasters like the December 2004 Asian tsunami, “but the number of people needing help is even greater.”
“The severity of this crisis means assistance is needed on a huge scale,” she said.
Earlier this month the United Nations appealed for US$426 million (?345 million)
to help victims of drought in the Horn of Africa, where more than 40 percent of people are undernourished. The U.N. said more than 11.5 million people would require food assistance in the next six months in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia.
Oxfam said it was already helping more than 500,000 people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia who have been affected by the drought.
It said money raised through the appeal would go to long-term projects as well as immediate relief.
Actress Keira Knightley announced earlier this month that she was donating the dress she wore to this year’s Oscars to raise money for Oxfam’s relief work in East Africa. The burgundy silk-taffeta one-shoulder Vera Wang gown will be up for bid on the eBay auction Web site from Friday to April 30.
Source: AP, April 20, 2006
