$7.7 Billion Urgently Needed to Save Desperate Human Beings

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva – The UN and its partners called for $7.7 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 51 million people in 16 countries over the course of next year.

Credit: UN

Just for comparative purposes, it is estimated that the U.S. has spent some $4 trillion spent on its war on Iraq, while the world spends well over 1,6 trillion dollars a year on weapons.

At the same time, the nine nuclear-armed nations will spend in 2011 an estimated US$105 billion maintaining and modernizing their nuclear weapons, according to Tim Wright, from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

“Millions of people will be affected by emergencies caused or worsened by the impact of climate change, insecurity over food and water, economic and political crises, migration, urbanization and rapid population growth,” UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said at the launch of the appeal on December 14.

Urgent Appeal

“We urgently need the continued support of people and governments around the world to help those desperately in need,” underscored Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. “We urgently need the continued support of people and governments around the world to help those desperately in need.”

The appeal for 2012 is the largest launched since the creation of the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) in 1991, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It comprises appeals for Afghanistan, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Haiti, Kenya, Niger, the occupied Palestinian territory, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Horn of Africa

The humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa – Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia – remains the largest in the world, she noted. Four million people need urgent humanitarian aid in Somalia alone, and close to 600,000 refugees have sought protection in Kenya.

Humanitarian action has already had a significant impact in many regions of Somalia, and three areas of the country have moved from being “famine” areas to “emergency.”

“However, the situation remains fragile, and aid organizations will only be able to sustain these improvements if the current level of assistance is maintained,” stress Amos.

The $2.4 billion requested in 2011 for these four countries in the region has been 78 per cent funded. Total requirements for the Horn of Africa will be 20 per cent higher in 2012 than for 2011.

The appeal is also seeking $763 million to help people in the world’s newest nation, South Sudan; $718 million for DR Congo; $455 million for Chad; $437 million for Afghanistan; $416 million for the occupied Palestinian territory; and $230 million for Haiti, among other countries.

Last year the UN and its partners sought more than $7.4 billion to help 50 million people suffering from the effects of conflicts and natural disasters in 28 countries.

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