US Congressional Panel Targets Horn of Africa Crisis | Albuquerque Express

US Congressional Panel Targets Horn of Africa Crisis

VoA - Africa Thursday 8th March, 2012

A House of Representatives panel is calling on all U.S. lawmakers to remain focused on the continuing food, refugee and humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.

At Thursday's hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, held jointly with the House Hunger Caucus, Obama administration officials testified that the United States has made a difference in the region, but that there still are millions of people who urgently need assistance.

Committee Co-Chairman Representative James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said that although the United Nations declared last month that there is no longer famine in Somalia, the crisis in the region is far from over.

"As a result of the combination of war and hunger, some 2.5 million Somalis have migrated within Somalia or to a neighboring country in search of security and food. This extraordinary movement of desperate people has created an extraordinary refugee crisis in the region," he said.

Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Agency for International Development said the United States reacted quickly to early warning signs of famine and has led international efforts in the horn of Africa, contributing $935 million to the region during the crisis.

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