Slow International Response To Horn Of Africa Crisis

During an annual meeting, the head of the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, criticized the international community for reacting too slowly to a deterioration in the Horn of Africa hunger crisis. Aid workers and critics say a string of early warnings about drought and failed rains in the region has been months if not years in the making.

More than 13 million people face severe hunger across East Africa. Somalia is at the epicenter of the crisis, with 750,000 people facing imminent starvation. Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab has refused to allow food shipments to many of the famine-hit areas of which it controls. Other suffering countries in the region include Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda.

Guterres used his speech to highlight what many U.N. officials expect to be the increasingly unpredictable nature, frequency and severity of tomorrow’s humanitarian crisis. He appealed to UNHCR’s executive committee for a better understanding of the need for more funding flexibility, especially for neglected refugee crises.

SOURCE: World Dragging Its Feet Over Horn of Africa Crisis-UNHCR
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/world-dragging-its-feet-over-horn-of-africa-crisis-unhcr

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