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STORY: UN / HORN OF AFRICA WRAP
TRT: 2.39
SOURCE: UNTV / WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
12 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Ban Ki-moon approaches microphone
3. Cutaway, reporters
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I am extremely worried by the situation in Horn of Africa. More than 11 million people need urgent assistance to stay alive, as they face their worst drought in decades. This morning I called an urgent, emergency meeting with the heads of UN agencies. We admit we must do everything we can to prevent this crisis deepening. The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic. UN agencies have asked for $1.6 billion dollars to pay for essential life-saving programmes in the region, but have only received half that amount. We cannot afford to wait. I urge Member States to support our appeal fully, and without delay. I have decided that I will personally get in touch with Member States, and ask them to provide the resources we need. Our priority is to stop the suffering now.
But, looking ahead, we must do more to tackle the underlying fragility in this region.”
5. Cutaway, reporters
6. Wide shot, Ban leaves
FILE / WFP / 6 JULY 2011, DAGAHALEY REFUGEE CAMP, DADAAB, KENYA
7. Various shots, newly-arrived Somali refugees at Dagahaley refugee camp where they will receive food and shelter
12 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“We have to scale up our efforts, its not just Ethiopia, its Kenya and particularly Somalia where we have the impact of the drought and the conflict and we’re seeing families, women, children who are walking for weeks to cross over from Somalia into Kenya or into Ethiopia. So it’s extremely serious. The gravity of this cannot be underestimated.”
FILE / WFP / 6 JULY 2011, DAGAHALEY REFUGEE CAMP, DADAAB, KENYA
9. Various shots, WFP warehouse of food being distributed
12 JULY 2011, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“There are two additional things that I think are important. One is that this crisis is not going to end any time soon so we have to recognize that the numbers will increase and we will have to scale up our efforts considerably. We’re also going to need a lot more money so we will be calling on our donors to really dig deep.”
5 JULY 2011, DOLO ADO REFUGEE CAMP, ETHIOPIA
9. Pan right, newly arrived refugees from Somalia
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today in New York called on countries to urgently support United Nations agencies in their efforts to respond to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, where more than 11 million people are in need of life-saving assistance as they face the worst drought in decades.
“Our priority is to stop the suffering now,” Ban told reporters at UN Headquarters, where earlier today he convened an emergency meeting with the heads of a number of agencies working in the region.
“We admit we must do everything we can to prevent this crisis deepening,” he said.
“The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic.” UN agencies have asked for $1.6 billion to pay for essential programmes in the Horn of Africa, but have only received half that amount.
Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are all facing a crisis that is being called the worst in 50 years. “We cannot afford to wait,” stressed the Secretary-General, who said he will personally get in touch with countries and ask them to provide the necessary resources.
Among the agencies participating in today’s meeting were the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“We have to scale up our efforts”, Valerie Amos, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, who just returned from a trip to the region told UNTV during an interview.
Amos stressed that besides Ethiopia, the crisis was also affecting Kenya and Somalia where the impact of the drought and the conflict was affecting families, women, and children who are walking for weeks to cross over from Somalia into Kenya or into Ethiopia. So, Amos added “it’s extremely serious. The gravity of this cannot be underestimated.”
She also pointed out that the crisis was not going to end any time soon, “so we have to recognize that the numbers will increase and we will have to scale up our efforts considerably.” Amos emphasized there will be need for “a lot more money so we will be calling on our donors to really dig deep.”
