No Finnish humanitarian aid to Niger - funds spent on tsunami victims
Ministry official calls Niger famine a "media-sexy" topic
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Finland has not provided any aid to the victims of the famine in Niger and other parts of Africa’s Sahel region. According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, there are no plans to give any such aid.
"We do not have the money to give", says Paula Sirkiä of the Foreign Ministry’s unit for humanitarian aid.
This year’s funding for humanitarian aid has largely been used for helping the countries suffering from the tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26th.
Sirkiä says that EUR 20 million was spent on humanitarian aid for the tsunami victims, and another EUR 30 million will be spent over three years in the form of development cooperation.
The sum is nearly four times as high as the original UN appeal for 16 million dollars to help Niger, where 2.5 million people are in need of immediate food aid.
Sirkiä says that the relatively large promises for tsunami aid were made in an "atmosphere of disaster".
"As I understand it, when politicians spoke at the time, they made these promises. It is difficult to go back on the promises later on."
Because of the amount of money pledged to the tsunami victims, Finland has only EUR 34 million left for other humanitarian aid. Last year the total sum was 44.4 million. Emergency aid to Africa totalled EUR 12 million, compared with EUR 24 million last year, even though a supplementary budget provided another EUR 8 million for humanitarian aid.
"The ‘normal’ budget for the humanitarian aid unit was to have been EUR 46 million this year. If this is to be achieved, another EUR 12 million in extra funding will be needed. The money would be used mainly to alleviate crises in Africa - in Somalia, Congo, Uganda, Sudan, West Africa, and Southern Africa", states an assessment put out this month by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Appealing on behalf of aid to Niger has been Raine Luomanen, Niger’s Honorary Consul in Finland, who personally visited a number of Foreign Ministry officials last year; no promises were forthcoming.
"I think that this is an unfortunate attitude when emergency relief is involved."
Paula Sirkiä says that when making decisions, the ministry assesses where the need for humanitarian aid is the greatest. She says that in UN appeals, the aftermath of the tsunami was classified as much more serious a crisis than the one in Niger.
She says that of the total of EUR 54 million earmarked for Finnish humanitarian aid this year, just over EUR 6 million are left for this year, and that none of this would be going to Niger.
Sirkiä says that there have always been undernourished children in Niger.
"Now the media has brought it forward. It has become a media-sexy topic."
Sirkiä says that to her knowledge, there has been no consideration of sending even a nominal sum as a gesture of solidarity to the people of Niger.
"During my time [at the Foreign Ministry] we have never spoken of solidarity. We have always operated on the basis of cold facts."
Honorary Consul Luomanen says that a couple of months ago she sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry warning of the danger of the spread of radical Islamism in the predominantly Muslim Niger.
Nevertheless, some Finnish money is going to Niger, through Echo, the humanitarian aid office of the European Commission. Finland is also providing EUR 250,000 in development cooperation funds for a research project into agriculture in dry areas. The headquarters of the project is in Niamey, the capital of Niger.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 18.8.2005 - TODAY |
 No Finnish humanitarian aid to Niger - funds spent on tsunami victims |
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