Above: refugees in Somalia (UN Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo announced his government would grant $100,000 in relief for those suffering from the famine in the Horn of Africa.

“It is impossible not to be moved by the distressing images of innocent children suffering helplessly at the hands of a natural disaster on this scale,” he said. “The hearts, minds and thoughts of all Guyanese people are with our brothers and sisters in East Africa. We pray that relief comes to them in [the] shortest possible time.”

Jagdeo called on the world community to “galvanise itself” into a full response with the greatest urgency, in order to avert what he called an “unfolding human disaster.”

Yesterday, UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said aid efforts in the region had to be stepped up further.

“We’re faced with a still-spreading famine in Somalia and with such a scale of suffering that every effort needs to be made and sustained in the months ahead,” she said.

Amos, who is the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, said aid efforts by the UN and its partners were accelerating.