The humanitarian charity Christian Aid has welcomed Thursday’s announcement by the United Nations that it has launched an emergency fund to help deliver money quickly and more efficiently to regions hit by humanitarian disasters.

|PIC1|The UK has taken the lead by already pledging £70 million to the $500 million UN Central Emergency Response Fund launched in New York Thursday by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the fund will act as a buffer against shortfalls and delays in dealing with chronic hunger and suffering in Africa, following a recent review which Downer said found the UN’s existing resources to be extremely inadequate for the kind of response needed for sudden disasters.

Babatunde Olugboji, Africa policy and advocacy manager at Christian Aid, said: “We are grateful that Kofi Annan has followed the call of the British Government to set up this fund. Hilary Benn has been one of the first International Development secretaries to contribute to the fund and we call on other nations to follow this example.

“However, there is no time for back-slapping. There are emergencies that need attention now. It is vital that money is immediately sent out to East Africa where more than 11 million people are at risk of starvation and death as a result of severe drought. Christian Aid is already there, working with local communities, but more support is urgently needed.”

The announcement of the UN emergency fund follows the launch of Christian Aid’s emergency appeal earlier in the week to bring aid immediately to the millions suffering from famine and drought across Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Djibouti.

|AD|“This is a crisis on the verge of becoming a catastrophe,” said Dominic Nutt, Christian Aid’s emergencies specialist reporting from Somalia. “There are dead cattle everywhere and people have sold everything they have to buy food. These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help.”

It is estimated around 70 per cent of all livestock across the affected region have been lost to the drought as people continue to walk miles in search of something to drink and eat.

Christian Aid is working with partners across the Horn of Africa in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Tanzania to provide immediate aid and assistance to the millions of suffering people.

The charity is currently funding water tankers in Kenya, where 3.5 million people are in urgent need of help. The tankers will provide 52,000 litres of water a day to vulnerable communities.

Christian Aid has partnered with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) to distribute water to people in the southern part of the Oromiya region on Kenya’s northern border, while in Somalia Christian Aid is working together with Norwegian Church Aid to bring clean water to 30,000 people in the south region of the country.

"The goal of the fund is simple: to provide aid workers with sufficient funding to jump-start lifesaving relief operations and to immediately deploy staff, goods and services for people in need when most lives are on the line," said Jan Egeland, the head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

"Too often, aid resembles a lottery in which a few win but most lose based on considerations other than need. We must move from lottery to predictability so all those who suffer receive aid."