The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power has revealed that the US contributed about $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid to people of Somalia who are suffering as a result of drought in the country.
Power who made this known at the CNN International’s One World with Zain Asher on Thursday, said over 4.5 million Somalis have been reached with food aid as US accounting for two-thirds of the humanitarian needs of the Somali people.
According to her, “Somalia are dire in food circumstances. I was actually there a couple months ago. And it is every bit as bleak as described, if not more, particularly for pastoralists, people who have relied on raising livestock for millennia, families that have relied for millennia.
“And now, with this unprecedented fifth straight season of drought, absolutely no way to get water to animals. So just seeing these animals wasted away there and in northern Kenya, and elsewhere in the Horn, it’s devastating”, she said.
Power seeked more countries to step up in donoring for the Somali people. “Countries in the Gulf, countries in Europe and other large donor countries that when past food crises have hit, the Somali people have always been able to count on” she said.
Speaking on other African nations with food Insecurity, the USAID Administrator said she met with the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they discussed about a major disaster emergency is befalling Kinshasa city, because of the flooding there.
“We’ve seen in Chad, floods take many lives and have made an additional funding announcement to get food and other forms of shelter and support to the people of Chad. Needless to say, with the effects of climate change being felt either with too much water or too little water all around the world”.
Power pointed out that it is really, really important that there be more burden sharing when it comes to humanitarian support. “We’re in conversations with Congress to see if we can further supplement our humanitarian assistance budget, commensurate with these needs.
“Humanitarian needs that Putin has made worse, of course, by driving up food prices, by making it so hard to get food out of Ukraine, you know, even though food is now moving through the Black Sea, not nearly at the pace that it was even just two months ago.
“So again, I think the U.S. is taking a leadership role as the world’s leading humanitarian donor. Other countries are stretched economically, we appreciate that. But this is time to dig deep given the needs”, she boldly said.
Also speaking on the US-Africa Leaders Summit which is ongoing, Power said President Joe Biden has changed the narrative with this high-level Africa summit that had never happened in the history of America which she described wonderful.
“But I work at USAID, and I can tell you, we’ve been working in Africa for 61 years. You actually did not see substantial changes to our programming under the last administration”, she said.
USAID Administrator stated further that there’s bipartisan support for even the transition to renewable energies. “The initiative you might have heard of called Power Africa has brought first time electricity to about 165 million Africans, which is incredibly important.
“The initiative President Biden announced yesterday, which will electrify 10,000 health clinics across Africa, that’s the kind of initiative that will be sustained irrespective of who’s up or who’s down in Washington.
“So, again, rhetoric changes. The high level embrace certainly we didn’t see in the previous administration and this kind of frontal commitment from President Biden.
“But, when it comes to food security assistance, when it comes to HIV/AIDS, malaria, you know, these diseases that have taken so many lives needlessly in Africa.
“And when it comes to what Africa most wants, which is partnership, and catalytic economic growth, trade, investment, I think that’s something that is in the interests of all Americans and all Africans”, Power said.