UN seeks $7 billion in aid to Africa and M. East

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) with Spanish King Juan Carlos (R) Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. United Nations asked on Wednesday for a record $7 billion in aid for 30 million people in Africa and the Middle East in 2009. Photo/REUTERS

GENEVA, Wednesday - The United Nations asked on Wednesday for a record $7 billion in aid for 30 million people in Africa and the Middle East in 2009, and stressed that the global financial crisis should not distract donor governments.

The appeal is the largest in the U.N.'s history, nearly double the amount it initially sought last year to help victims of conflict and natural disasters, and comes during the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the turbulent world economy should not detract from the urgent needs of those in stricken states such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The global financial crisis has raised inevitable concerns that there could be a decline in humanitarian funding for 2009. I urge member states and private donors not to let that happen," Ban wrote in a forward to the fundraising document.

"I appeal for $7 billion to be provided without delay and as a top priority," he said.

African states would receive the most assistance under the 2009 appeal, which covers 31 countries, Ban said.

The U.N. is seeking $2.2 billion dollars for Sudan, $919 million for Somalia, $831 million for the Democratic Republic of Congo, $550 million for Zimbabwe, and smaller sums for Kenya, Chad, Uganda, Central African Republic and Cote d'Ivoire.

The latest appeal also includes a request of $547 million for programmes in Iraq and the surrounding region and $462 million for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Over the past decade, even during periods of strong economic growth, governments have provided between just 48 percent and 67 percent of the funding requested in U.N. humanitarian appeals.

Last year, the U.N. asked for $3.8 billion in its initial appeal, and later sought $3.2 billion more in "flash appeals" to respond to natural disasters in Bolivia, Madagascar, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Yemen, and southern Africa.

Donors only provided $4.7 billion of that $7 billion total.

John Holmes, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, urged governments on Wednesday to avoid relegating humanitarian aid to the sidelines in 2009 as a result of the credit crunch that has led to costly corporate bailouts in wealthy nations.

"The $7 billion that we seek equates to, for every $100 of national income in the rich countries, only a few cents of aid," he said in a statement released in Geneva, the U.N.'s European headquarters.

As a percentage of economic output, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Monaco, Luxembourg and Sweden were the top five humanitarian aid donors in 2008, according to U.N. figures. (Reuters)