Appeal made for urgent and intensified international efforts to meet Africa's emergency needs.

The Assembly, in adopting resolution 41/29 by consensus on 31 October, appealed to the international community and United Nations and non-governmental organizations urgently to pursue and intensify their efforts to satisfy the unmet needs of African countries still affected by the emergency situation facing the continent.

The Assembly noted with deep concern that increased emergency assistance continued to be required and that non-food-needs had yet to be met. The decision of the Secretary-General to continue monitoring the situation after the closure of the Office for Emergency Operations in Africa was welcomed.

Charles La Muniere, Executive Co-ordinator of the Office for Emergency Operations in Africa (OEOA), has been named Director for Emergencies in Africa, to coordinate United Nations follow-up to the work of OEOA, which was closed on 31 October.

Appreciation was expressed to the international community for its valuable support to the emergency situation and the determined efforts of African countries and peoples in responding to the challenge posed by that situation were commended.

Every possible effort to assist African states to establish early-warning systems to limit and control the grasshopper and locust infestations and to provide adequate aid for dealing with its effects was urged.

Pascal Gayama (Congo), introducing the draft resolution, noted that there were still regions in Africa suffering from famine as a result of drought and desertification, and that migrant locusts and grasshoppers had made the situation potentially worse. The text paid tribute to those who had contributed to emergency operations, he said, but continued efforts were required to satisfy remaining needs. Implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 complemented the resolution should be seen in terms of immediate and long-term results.

Report: The Secretary-General reported (A/41/683) on the critical economic situation in Africa, in line with a 1985 Assembly request (resolution 40/40).

"The last major drought that had been developing over a number of years in several regions of Africa culminated in 1984 in an extraordinary emergency of catastrophic proportions", he recalled. Harvests failed, livestock perished, water supplies dropped to new lows, and the spectre of severe famine, disease and death spread over some 20 African countries.

Particularly hard hit were people already living it subsistence levels; more than 35 million were affected, and of those, almost 10 million abandoned their homes and their land in search of food and water.

That "tragic sequence of events", the Secretary-General said, "and the tremendous human suffering that resulted from it did not occur overnight, nor did it result from drought alone". Persistent negative economic forces - including a prolonged and general recession in the industrialized countries, which resulted in stagnation of aid flows to African countries; a growing debt-servicing burden; lower returns from agricultural products and other commodities; higher fuel and manufactured goods prices - had affected the development potential of the African countries concerned for more than a decade.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar said at the end of 1984 he had decided to set up, on a temporary basis, the Office for Emergency Operations in Africa (OEOA) to respond to the emergency needs of affected countries in a timely and effective way. The Office was involved in co-ordinating aid efforts; providing information on emergency needs and donor responses; helping affected African countries mobilize resources to meet their emergency needs; assisting in timely delivery of aid and solving logistical problems; and helping maintain public awareness of the continuing gravity of the situation.

During 1985, he said, estimated emergency needs stemming from the drought-related famine emergency in 20 affected countries amounted to some $3.38 billion. Some 6 million metric tonnes of food aid was delivered. The United States, the European Community, the World Food Programme and Canada accounted for more than 65 per cent of food aid allocations. Support came from many countries, including low-income countries of the third world.

In addition to food, donors provided trucks, air-lift operations and logistics management; drugs, medicines and vaccines; water supply and sanitation needs; blankets, clothing and shelter; agricultural tools, seeds, pesticides and irrigation equipment. Refugee and returnee needs were also met.

"Looking back at 1985, the African people and the international community can recall with pride that a major tragedy was averted, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved and the suffering of millions more relieved by a generally timely and effective response. At the peak of the emergency in 1985, there were 3 to 5 million people in camps. Today there are virtually none, yet we must remember that in these camps, at one stage, hundreds of people were dying daily. The affected African people everywhere have responded with great vitality and in a spirited, determined way to the challenge for survival that many had to face directly.

African Task

Force meets

The United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Follow-up to the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development at the Regional Level met for the first time in Geneva on 15 and 16 December.

FAO to undertake

major study on

|aid-in-kind' to Africa

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will undertake a major feasibility study on "aid-in-kind" to help Africa's agricultural recovery and to relieve foreign exchange constraints in obtaining inputs such as fertilizers and seeds.