U.N. $5 billion short of relief needs

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U.N. $5 billion short of relief needs
UNITED NATIONS, U.N. agencies and affiliates are coming up nearly $5 billion short this year for humanitarian relief efforts worldwide, an official said Wednesday in New York.

The international organization said in a release less than half of the $9.5 billion it says it needs to help 53 million people in 34 countries has been funded. Still, despite the global recession, funding commitments are only slightly behind that of recent years, a U.N. official said.

"Maintaining humanitarian aid budgets this year in the face of recession and budgets has been a real achievement by many donors," John Holmes, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said in a speech to member states at U.N. headquarters in New York.

"We now ask you to persist in this effort to ensure that people struck by disaster or conflict receive the help they need for the rest of the year to stay alive, avoid recoverable harm, and restore dignity and basic self-sufficiency."

The total amount needed for relief this year has ballooned from an initial budget of $7.1 billion because of new crises such as the January earthquake that devastated Haiti, Holmes said.

Deteriorating situations in regions the Central African Republic and the Sahel, especially Niger, where there is a large-scale food crisis, also have contributed to the growing need, he said.
 
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