Tsunami distracting donors from other causes

GENEVA – The hugely successful worldwide campaign to send immediate aid to victims of last year’s Indian Ocean tsunami has distracted donors from less-dramatic emergencies, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Tuesday.

While 85 percent of the U.N. appeal for relief to countries hit by December’s tsunami has been covered, other emergencies have received much lower amounts, Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva.

“We should give according to needs, and that is not happening,” said Egeland, who is head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

With major natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, “we don’t need to do anything to get the attention,” Egeland said. “It’s the slow onset disasters that are the problem, the droughts especially.”

He cited in particular Niger, Djibouti and the Central African Republic.

Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been particularly hard hit by drought and a severe locust invasion “of biblical proportions,” and the agency’s appeal for $16.2 million launched last week has received no contributions, Egeland said.

OCHA hopes to provide food aid for some 3.6 million people in the west African country, where 800,000 children under 5 are suffering from hunger, including 150,000 who are severely malnourished.

OCHA has received only 4 percent of the $7.5 million it has sought to help victims of drought in Djibouti, and 6 percent of its $23.6 million appeal for the Central African Republic, which is recovering from civil war. But Egeland stressed that the worldwide response to the Dec. 26 tsunami was remarkable. Food, basic health care, clothes and shelter were provided to those affected, he said.

“There can be no shred of doubt that the world has performed at its best vis a vis the Indian Ocean tsunami,” Egeland said.