Foreign donors are so discouraged with Zimbabwe that the South African nation attracted just 4 US dollar (23 DKR) in outside aid for every person with AIDS in 2004 compared to 74 dollar (422 DKR) on average in the South African region as a whole, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said Tuesday.
Zimbabwe is one of a number of African countries suffering from the triple threat of soaring AIDS cases, drought and “weak or bad governance,” Egeland said after briefing the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Africa.
But a lack of dialogue between the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and potential donors was also to blame for the country’s poor showing in AIDS funding as well as persistent food shortages, he said.
Danish UN Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj proposed that council members approve an informal statement expressing concern about the situation in Zimbabwe but that was blocked when China and Algeria objected, diplomats said.
The two countries argued that Zimbabwes problem was a humanitarian crisis that did not belong on the agenda of the Security Council, which deals with international peace and security.
Zimbabwe was once a breadbasket for Africa but its economy has virtually collapsed during the last six years and it now depends heavily on outside aid to feed its people.
Critics blame Mugabe, who encouraged the seizure of white-owned commercial farms, severely disrupting Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector and scaring off foreign investors.
The 81-year-old leader, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses his domestic and foreign foes of trying to sabotage the economy.
Kilder: FN og Reuters
