§ 50. Mr. Geoffrey Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish a timetable of the official requests received by his Department for aid to the famine in Ethiopia and the responses made by his Department.
§ Mr. RaisonTwo such appeals have been made this year by the Ethiopian Government, but there have been others by international agencies.
On 30 March 1984 the Ethiopian Government appealed to all donors for drought relief aid. The full report reached my Administration on 27 April. The donors had sought detailed clarification on certain points through the United Nations resident co-ordinator and the answers to these were given at a meeting on 4 June. We then supported European Community decisions to provide 18,000 tonnes of cereals (7 June), and 1,900 tonnes of dairy products (10 July).
On 17 April the Community had already decided to provide emergency aid of 2.5 million ecus. On 22 May we told the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner 267W that, following earlier help, a further £300,000 was being given to various British voluntary agencies to support their relief operation.
In response to the International Committee of the Red Cross and League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' 1984 appeals for drought stricken African countries, including Ethiopia, we had already made grants of £2 million and £1 million respectively. In July and June we received revised appeals from each organisation. On 30 July we announced further contributions to these appeals of £150,000 and £350,000 respectively, the same day we announced allocations of 2,000 tonnes British food aid for the voluntary agencies' work in Ethiopia, and £1 million for the Disasters Emergency Appeal "Famine in Africa". We also indicated that we would urge the World Food Programme to give Ethiopia part of the British contribution to the programme, and 15,000 tonnes have now been so allocated.
On 20 July we received a UNICEF appeal for help to mothers and children in 13 drought-stricken African countries including Ethiopia. We responded to this on 7 August with a gift of £1 million.
On 21 September the Ethiopian authorities issued a second appeal to all donors. On 17 September the European Community had already allotted another 3 million ecus in emergency assistance. On 4 October we agreed to provide another 3,000 tonnes of cereals through British voluntary agencies. On 17 October the Community agreed to provide another 35,000 tonnes of cereals and 1,300 tonnes of edible oil and dairy products. I announced our further aid decisions on 24 October, and at our urging the European Community Council of Ministers agreed on extensive additional help on 6 November.
§ 51. Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he is satisfied with the action taken by the EEC in providing emergency aid to Ethiopia.
§ Mr. RaisonYes, so far. The European Community has provided food, development and emergency aid to Ethiopia on a substantial scale this year. The need now is to reach early agreement on the 1985 food aid programme and on further emergency assistance from the European development fund.
§ 52. Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about recent discussions with the Ethiopian Government about food aid and other matters.
§ Mr. RaisonOur ambassador and his staff in Addis Ababa are in constant touch with the Ethiopian authorities. I myself saw the Ethiopian Commissioner for Relief and Rehabilitation, Mr. Dawit Wolde-Giorgis, on 7 November. We then reviewed what Her Majesty's Government, together with the European Community and other countries and agencies, are now doing to help relieve the famine in Ethiopia.
§ 53. Mr. Baldryasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps have been taken by the Council of Ministers to help alleviate the consequences of the present famine in Ethiopia.
§ Mr. RaisonThe Council of Ministers endorsed on 6 November plans to provide food and other emergency aid worth approximately £35 million for Africa, much of which will go to Ethiopia. Before this £11.6 million had268W been spent by the European Community on food aid, including 53,000 tonnes of cereals, to Ethiopia in 1984 in addition to development projects financed from the European development fund.
§ Mr. Macleanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to seek to secure United Nations observers to station themselves in Ethiopia to ensure that food aid reaches the starving civilian population and is not diverted to other recipients.
§ Mr. RaisonMy right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made representations to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for better aid co-ordination. Last week he appointed a UN co-ordinator for international relief aid to Ethiopia. The UN agencies concerned, and the voluntary agencies, work closely with the Ethiopian Government in expediting the transport of food to the people who need it. We have said that we are ready to provide further help to reinforce their monitoring work if this is required.