Episcopal Press and News

Bread for the World Launches Africa Campaign

Episcopal News Service. March 21, 1991 [91079E]

Bread for the World, a Washington-based national Christian lobby on hunger and related development issues, has announced a massive campaign to prevent 21 million people from starving in Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Somalia. The campaign seeks to end the continuing cycle of war and hunger through passage of the Horn of Africa Recovery and Food Security Act of 1991, introduced in Congress March 14. "While we lament the destruction and number of deaths from the Middle East conflict, the number of innocent victims from conflict in the Horn of Africa is many times higher," said Sharon Pauling, African policy analyst for Bread for the World. Pauling pointed out that over two million people have died in the area since 1985 and "we cannot ignore this crisis where living skeletons roam what has become the bloodiest battleground on earth." The act calls on the United States to promote peace and development in the area by providing emergency relief, increased development assistance to grassroots organizations, and mobilizing international pressure for peace in the region.