Pretoria - South Africa says it is committed to working hard to end the suffering currently gripping the Horn of Africa due to the on-going drought and famine.
But there is also a need to look at the medium to long term needs of the Somali people as the internally displaced and refugees need to be repatriated to their areas of origin and their country needs to be capacitated to be able to mitigate against such a disaster in the future.
"Instability due to war and the absence of a functioning government have contributed to the worsening of the situation in Somalia. The lack of sustainable programmes for institution and capacity building also renders Somalia more vulnerable to natural disasters," International Relations Deputy Minister Marius Fransman.
Fransman, who is just returned from the African Union summit for pledging funds to support relief efforts in Somalia, says South Africa will continue to work with the AU, the Africa Group in Rome, the UN in general, to ensure that not only the immediate humanitarian relief operations and needs are being addressed, but to strike a balance between the short-term relief responses and the need for development over the medium and long terms in order to address the root causes of the crisis.
"Government would continue to engage at all relevant international forums to ensure that the needs of Somalia are carefully considered and reflected with other international partners, as this challenge should be seen as a global challenge that should be addressed within a partnership, in which Africa should play a critical role," added Fransman.
The African Union called the special summit on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to raise funding from all UN Member States, non-government organizations and private sector firms to ease the suffering of the millions of people affected by the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The summit was attended by many Heads of State and governments as well as UN agencies working in Ethiopia.
The summit raised over $350 million in cash and $28.8 million in check, which the chairperson of the African Union commission Jean Ping described as a remarkable achievement.
The South African government has responded to the humanitarian crisis confronting the Horn of Africa by raising R8 million towards the famine relief programme. R4 million was donated to the South African NGO, Gift of the Givers, towards transportation and logistical costs of delivering aid to Somalia.
In addition, on Thursday it pledged a further $280 000 for relief efforts in the Somalia region.
