UN special envoy calls for more drought aid

Catherine Bertini, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, on Tuesday made an impassioned appeal for increased donor assistance, pointing out that “3.3 million people in Kenya are in dire need of food”.

Addressing a press conference in Nairobi, Bertini, who is the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), described in detail the effects and consequent needs of Kenya in dealing with what is now called the worst drought on record. Bertini, who was on a week-long follow-up tour to her April visit, described how the situation had changed as the result of the prolonged drought. “In April we thought we were funded for Kenya, but as the drought continued, we realised we weren’t,” she said.

In fact, the UN has resourced only 70 percent of Kenya’s current needs. According to a recent UN report, of the US $146 million budgeted for the crisis in Kenya, US $46 million was still needed. The report went on to say that, of all the countries in the Horn of Africa, Kenya needed the most urgent donor attention, as the country still faced a serious relief gap until early December 2000, and donor pledges needed to be quickly stepped up. While humanitarian assistance was planned until the end of the year, it was already foreseen that major relief assistance would be needed until at least mid-2001.