(UN Watch/IMRA) On Monday, the UN's World Food Program launched its "Africa Hunger Alert" campaign to draw attention to and raise funds for 38 million people facing starvation in Africa. Are the Africans getting a fair share of aid funds? The UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Humanitarian Assistance, known as "CAP," in 2003 asks for nearly nine times as much aid per Palestinian as for each Ethiopian threatened by famine. Furthermore, the UN provides over 12 times more in subsidies to the Palestinian economy than to the combined economies of the six southern African countries. Africans and Palestinians both require substantial humanitarian assistance, but humanitarian principles also require equity, objectivity, and the absence of political considerations.
2002-12-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive