30 Million Africans Facing Death or Malnutrition, U.N. Agency Warns

Fast-spreading famine is putting 30 million Africans at risk of malnutrition or death at the same time the world’s richest countries are “aid weary,” the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported Tuesday.

About 5.7 million tons of emergency food aid are needed--2.3 million tons more than have been pledged by donor countries weary of giving after appeals from Kurdish refugees and Bangladesh cyclone victims, the agency said in a statement issued in Washington.

This year’s conditions could become worse than the 1984 famine in which 2 million to 3 million Africans died, the agency said.

“The danger is that Africa could become the forgotten continent,” said FAO Director General Edouard Saouma. “The international community is becoming aid-weary.”

The agency informs potential donors when a food disaster is imminent, “but so far in this emergency the donor response has not been as great as in previous calamities,” said Peter Newhouse, a spokesman for the Rome-based FAO.

The famine, caused by drought and civil wars, has hit Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, Somalia, Liberia and Angola hardest.

Other nations facing serious food emergencies are Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone and Uganda.