Reps Lee and Payne Call on Bush to Help Niger
For Immediate Release
July 29, 2005
Reps Lee and Payne Call on Bush to Help Niger
(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ) sent a letter to President Bush today, calling on him to act to increase and expedite U.S. and international aid to address the famine facing 3.6 million people in Niger.
Lee is the most senior Democratic woman on the House International Relations Committee, and serves on the Africa subcommittee, where Payne is the ranking member. They were joined by 20 members of the House, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Ranking Member of the House International Committee, Tom Lantos (D-CA). The text of the letter follows:
July 29, 2005
The Honorable George Walker Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Tragically, the humanitarian crisis in Niger has become yet another one of the world's forgotten emergencies in Africa. Our lofty proclamations calling for development assistance for Africa made at the 2005 G-8 Conference in Gleneagles last month now rings empty when compared to our limited reaction to this catastrophe. A very preventable drought and locust infestation crisis has turned into one of the world's largest humanitarian disasters. To date, 3.6 million people live in starvation, more than 800,000 children are suffering from hunger and 150,000 children suffer from malnutrition. The famine now threatens to engulf neighboring countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania in the upcoming months.
Like similar emergencies in Chad, Eritrea, Uganda, the Republic of Congo and Somalia, the international community largely has ignored the magnitude of this crisis in its early stages. The costs needed to address the issue have skyrocketed as a result. The UN reports that initial assistance of $1 a day per child for prevention programs in the early stages has increased to $80 a day per person to save lives of starving and malnourished children now suffering today. USAID's pledge to add an additional $6 million dollars in additional emergency food aid and set up programs to combat child malnutrition should be commended. However, the reality remains that humanitarian programs remain 79 percent underfunded. The UN has only received one-third of the $30 million dollars it has asked for with virtually no contributions for long-term assistance. The World Food Program has only received $9 million of the $16 million dollars initially requested to feed 1.2 million people. These amounts are alarmingly insufficient. They do not reflect the international community's support for Africa, its success touted at the G-8 Conference or our Congressional intent to do more in support Africa.
We have an obligation to overcome the apathy that has caused millions of men, women and children to die prematurely in Niger. Additional funding in humanitarian assistance and long-term development and prevention programming is needed to ensure that this crisis is overcome in Niger and does not spread throughout the West African Region. I urge you to address this issue by:
- increasing bi-lateral assistance to the people of Niger;
- asking G-8 countries to honor their pledged and get contributions to Niger in a timely fashion; making cash available for
the Office of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance to purchase emergency food from local economies in
surrounding countries (for quick delivery);
- funding temporary, emergency therapeutic feeding centers to be set up in remote villages and stipends for Community Health
Care Workers to go out and find those most in need of emergency food; and
- requesting military transport assistance for delivery of food.
We have the resources and the technology to do what is right. The future of a generation of Africans in Niger lies in our hands.
Sincerely,
Barbara Lee Donald Payne
Member of Congress Member of Congress
http://www.house.gov/lee/releases/05July29.htm