WFP chief decries Trump talk amid famine
Print Edition
THE former South Carolina governor who now heads the United Nations World Food Program says the media’s focus on United States President Donald Trump is taking away attention from the risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East.
“This is not fake news, this is reality,” said WFP Director-General David Beasley.
Beasley, a Republican whose March appointment was supported by the Trump administration, spoke to reporters yesterday after his organization and the UN refugee agency updated an appeal for US$1.4 billion to help refugees fleeing South Sudan. He cited a need to “rise above all the confusion,” particularly in “high-donor states” like the US.
“I mean literally if you turn on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN — it’s nothing but Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!” he said, referring to US TV networks. “And very little information about the famines in Syria, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen.”
“We’ve got to break through all of the smoke. This is not fake news, this is reality.”
The UN says roughly 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are facing possible famine. The UNHCR says South Sudan has become the source of “the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis,” with some 1.8 million people — including 1 million children — seeking safety in six neighboring countries. Nearly 900,000 are in Uganda alone.
“So we’re making an appeal today for the donors to step up to the game even more,” Beasley said, warning about access difficulties likely in the upcoming rainy season in South Sudan, amid already-difficult access caused by violence in the world’s newest country.
He said that before agreeing to take the job, he had canvassed Congressional leaders to gauge their commitment to WFP, and found it “tremendous.” But Beasley also alluded to speculation about future US funding. The Trump administration has proposed cuts for UN programs as part of its plan to reduce the State Department’s budget by roughly one-third.
He said the US government’s supplemental appropriations bill last week “stepped up with US$990 million in famine relief,” but conceded that 2018 funding “is going to be a dogfight.”
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