WFP head: Famine is not fake news
The former South Carolina governor who now heads the U.N.’s World Food Program says the media’s focus on President Donald Trump is taking away attention from the risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East.
WFP Director-General David Beasley said, “…If you turn on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN–it’s nothing but Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!” he said, referring to U.S. TV networks. “And very little information about the famines in Syria, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen.”
“We’ve got to break through all of the smoke,” he said. “This is not fake news, this is reality.”
The U.N. says roughly 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are facing possible famine. Refugee agency UNHCR says South Sudan has become the source of “the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis,” with some 1.8 million people–including 1 million children–seeking safety in six neighboring countries. Nearly 900,000 are in Uganda alone.
“So we’re making an appeal today for the donors to step up to the game even more,” Beasley said, warning about access difficulties likely in the upcoming rainy season in South Sudan, amid already-difficult access caused by violence in the world’s newest country.
[AP]
This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.