UNICEF Highlights Famine & Suffering of Children in Africa

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the 'Day of African Child' has drawn international attention to the dire situation of children in Africa caused by a huge shortfall in funding.

Dan Toole, UNICEF's Director of Emergency Programmes explained the situation: "The worst funding gaps affect countries that are recovering from or in the midst of civil conflict. None of these countries are in the headlines, but their situations are dire and require urgent attention."

Adding to the already desperate situation, some of the countries in East Africa have been exposed to years of droughts and crop failure. UNICEF expressed that the ones who have been affected the most are women and children. "In every one of these countries women and children suffer first and suffer the longest," added Dan Toole.

At the top of the list of countries with the least funded recurring emergencies are Angola (14% of required needs have been funded), Liberia (18%), Burundi (19%), Guinea (20%) and Eritrea (24%).

Angola, with rich natural recourses, however, after 27-years of civil war is facing sad statistics. It has the third worst child mortality rate in the world and one-third of the children are malnourished, according to UNICEF.

Liberia, anxiously needs funding for children to be reintegrated into the society, and for schooling, as during the 15 year civil conflict, children were recruited as soldiers. The statistics say there are around half a million Liberian children who missed schooling, and accelerated learning programmes are urgently needed for them.

Eritrea has suffered five years of widespread drought and crop failure.

"Natural disasters tend to be better-funded than countries undermined by long standing civil unrest, but the exception to this rule is Eritrea," Mr. Toole said.

There are 2.3 million people that need food aid, including 300,000 pregnant women and children. However, since the donor response is slow, several relief assistance programmes in Eritrea have been shut down, according to the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Ethiopia, facing a similar situation as Eritrea, suffers from a massive lack of funding. The country now faces civil unrest, caused by alleged fraud in the country's parliamentary elections on 15 May.

Violence during the demonstration in the capital, where around 36 people died led to Britain freezing £20 millions, as the UK government officially announced on Wednesday.

"I am putting on hold the planned increase in direct budget support that we were looking at, which was 20 million [pounds]," Hilary Benn, Britain's development minister, told reporters in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Benn, who was on a one-day visit to Ethiopia made the decision after meeting with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, where apart from other things, the recent violence was discussed.

"In my view, it is sensible to hold on to that to see how the situation develops," Benn added. Britain is the first country that announced any specific action following the violence.

However, the decision will not affect the £60 million in aid that Britain already has given Ethiopia in 2005.

"Can I make it absolutely clear that Britain remains committed to the development partnership that we have with Ethiopia, above all because it is in the interests of the Ethiopian people," Benn said. "I do not want the poor to suffer as a result of what has happened here in the last few weeks."

According to UNICEF other African countries that have failed to garner 50 percent of the target for emergency funding this year are Central African Republic (17%), Congo-Brazzaville (7%), Côte d'Ivoire (18%), Malawi (0%), Uganda (48%) and Tanzania
(16%).