A rchive Date
[ 13-06-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Congo ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/06/12/1083996-ap.html
War often fuels hunger in Africa
By BRYAN MEALER
June 12, 2005
BUKAVU, Congo (AP) - In places like Congo and Sudan, war and hunger are linked in a cycle of horror and desperation. In Congo's capital of Kinshasa, ragged street children swarm to open car windows, rubbing their bellies and moaning, "Boss, boss, 100 francs."
That's just 25 cents, but it goes a long way in an African country where years of fighting and decades of corruption under former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko have wrecked the economy and killed off most good jobs.
"I eat once a day," says Selemani Pataule, 45, a civil servant with three children. "I can't buy one kilogram of fish from our own river because it's too expensive. If I do this, then in one day my whole month's salary will be gone."
Money and other aid are quick fixes. For long-term solutions, the continent needs peace, development and leadership.
Matt Phillips, head of public affairs for the British aid group Save the Children, points to the comprehensive approach for reversing Africa's miseries that British Prime Minister Tony Blair hopes to make the focus of next month's summit of the Group of Eight - the seven biggest industrial countries and Russia.
The blueprint calls on the G-8 countries and other rich countries to double aid to Africa, but also to erase trade barriers so Africans can develop by doing business with the West and to fund African peacekeeping efforts in places like Sudan. It also urges African governments to address the seeds of conflict, including lack of democracy.
G-8 countries agreed Saturday to forgive $50 billion Cdn of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.
But the United States has rejected calls to double aid - it pledged $674 million US this week - saying it has already tripled what it gives and does not want to do more until it sees whether recipients can spend it effectively. But the drafters of the British proposal say they have taken Africa's capacity to absorb new aid into account.
"There do need to be mechanisms in place to make sure that aid is spent wisely," said Brendan Cox, a spokesman for the British relief group Oxfam, which backs the call for doubling aid. "I do think there are ways of doing those things."
In Congo, a vast country with a population of more than 50 million, nearly a decade of fighting has left almost four million dead and put 2.4 million people refugees at risk of starvation and disease, the United Nations says.
In Sudan, the 2 1/2-year-old conflict in the Darfur region has caused at least 180,000 deaths, many from disease and malnutrition, and has displaced more than two million people, according to UN estimates.
Massacres and other attacks by ethnic militias occur almost weekly in eastern Congo, forcing tens of thousands to flee into the forest, where they often fall prey to hunger or marauding militiamen. Others sought refuge in the region's cities such as Bukavu, where they do not fare much better.
Rev. Jules Okito said village women afraid of being raped by militiamen come to Bukavu only to be forced into prostitution because there is no food, or jobs. Here, they contract AIDS and die, he said. "If they have nothing, the weak ones prefer to die in the arms of a priest," said Okito, who added that 50 to 80 people show up at his church every day looking for food and shelter.
The rich, fertile soil of eastern Congo could easily feed much of Africa, experts say. But the violence has made many farmers abandon their fields of cassava, corn and beans. Insecurity on roads has also disrupted food shipments.
Loms Lombelelo, a doctor working with the U.S.-based aid group Action Against Hunger in Bukavu, said prices for the little food that reaches Bukavu is beyond the means of many people, since there are few jobs.
Violence forces aid groups to put their efforts into costly emergency relief, when money could be spent more effectively on getting people back on their feet, said Rachel Scott-Leflaive, spokeswoman for Congo's UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Seeds, farm tools and supplies would end the cycle of hunger," she said. "But unfortunately, money for these things keeps getting channeled into emergency response."
The UN World Food Program says it distributed 82,000 tonnes of corn, beans, salt and cooking oil to Congolese victimized by fighting last year, compared to 10,000 tonnes in 1999. Spokeswoman Pam Samu said it cost $70 million last year just to staff the offices needed to hand out the food.
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