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UN aid agencies said on Friday they needed US $65 million this year to manage humanitarian crises that have affected at least three million people in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“West Africa today is plagued by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises which it simply cannot handle without international help,” Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said.
He was speaking on behalf of the UN agencies at a fund-raising appeal in Geneva, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. In addition to aid, he said, the international community “must also support the restoration of regional stability and good governance”.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima said the appeal, coordinated by OCHA, was designed to integrate the response across the borders because the problem needed to be treated in a holistic manner.
The appeal covers country-specific activities ranging from refugee protection to longer-term economic recovery, and region-wide programmes in areas such as epidemiological surveillance and the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS.
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