Warning that more than 30 million Africans are at risk of starvation from worsening food shortages on that continent, international relief organizations called yesterday for an emergency increase in aid to prevent what they termed a looming humanitarian disaster.
Meeting in Baltimore, officials of the United Nations, U.S. government and 15 relief agencies pledged themselves to greater efforts to prevent a catastrophic famine -- but they remained far apart on how much food and money that will take.
During a meeting and news conference at the headquarters of Catholic Relief Services, one of the largest relief organizations, the officials stood together to issue what they called "The Baltimore Declaration," a unified pronouncement designed to attract worldwide attention to the crisis they say has been lacking.
The group said famine threatens the eastern countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the southern region that includes Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. The crisis has been compounded by the prevalence of AIDS, which has incapacitated many adults who would otherwise be gathering and raising food for their families.
Together with more isolated shortages in western Africa, "suddenly, you have something close to 40 million people severely at risk," said James T. Morris, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program.
Kenneth F. Hackett, executive director of Catholic Relief Services, said he hoped to garner the type of response that brought in millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia in the 1980s. That response, prompted by a broadcast report that showed starving children with bloated bellies, came too late to save many victims, he said.
"What we now see in Africa is a looming food crisis of great proportion," Hackett said.
But there was disagreement over what it will take to head off disaster, and how much should come from the U.S. government.
Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is asking Congress to add $335 million to the 2003 budget to help with the African shortages, in addition to more than $500 million already committed to the crisis.
But the Coalition for Food Aid, which represents the 15 organizations, contended that the administration would need hundreds of millions more to shoulder its burden and to keep up with rising commodity prices.
Natsios replied that such figures were based on a worst-case scenario in Eastern Africa, where government assessments of the need for food should be finished this month. After those studies are completed, he said, his agency will know better how much it should commit.
Pat Carey, senior vice president of programs for CARE USA, said government food assessments consistently underestimate need, particularly in Africa, where families have a tradition of spreading resources. In some regions he has visited, "for every person designated a recipient, there were multiple people receiving food," Carey said.
"I think the bottom line is to be prepared for the worst," said Charlie MacCormack, president of Save the Children. "If the grain isn't ordered today, it could be too late."
Some countries have balked at accepting U.S. foods because they contain genetically modified corn, which African officials have said could contaminate their crops if used for seed.
Zimbabwe, where nearly 7 million people are in danger of starving, is accepting genetically modified food. But officials said no amount of money or food may be able forestall famine.
Natsios accused Zimbabwe's president, Robert G. Mugabe, of deliberately encouraging starvation in regions that have not supported him politically. Mugabe has blamed drought.
"I have to say the Zimbabwean government is slowly but surely putting policies in place that will cause a famine no matter what we do," Natsios said.