22 nations short of food

Press, 9 November 1983, Page 8

22 nations short of food

NZPA , Rome The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said yesterday that emergency aid must be sent “without delay” to at least 22 African nations facing severe food shortages and famine. F.A.O. sources said that parts of Africa were suffering the worst famine since the 1973-74 food shortages which killed several hundred thousand people. The director-general, Dr Edouard Saouma, addressing the orgapisation’s twenty-second biennial conference, said that the overall food shortage in the Third World was “extremely worrying.” “Although the 1982 harvest was globally encouraging, we must not overlook the fact that, the ranks of the starving continue to swell,” he said.

Dr Saouma addressed delegates from about 100 countries who are expected to ratify the Rome-based agency’s 1984-85 budget of

about SUS42SM (about SNZSB7M) at the three-week session. “I urge donor countries to speed up delivery of food and other aid already promised — it must be dispatched without delay — and to consider additional commitments to meet the shortages forecast for the 1983-84 season.”

The organisation listed the 22 affected countries as: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Dr Saouma said that developing countries’ continued dependence on food imports “represents a grave danger for the future.” “It is a heavy burden on the balance of payments, compromises investment programmes, and puts these countries increasingly at the mer&jLof outside interests.”