West aid pledge renege a routine

The European governments’ failure to live up to their promises of aid for the drought-stricken Horn of Africa has not been unprecedented, an analyst says.

“The international community, especially western countries, has a record of pledging publicly that they are going to help and then they don’t help,” said Nii Akuetteh, African affairs analyst, in an interview with Press TV.

Referring to the European countries’ recurrent failure to honor their pledges of aid to Africa, Akuetteh said, “I also think that there is a pattern to this and there is a history to this.”

“Former Prime Minister Tony Blair made a big deal about caring about Africa. The G8 conference that he called in Gleneagles pledged a lot of money to Africa, but it’s like a show pledge,” he illustrated.

The African affairs analyst further dubbed the promises of these countries as “almost worthless,” adding that a more mutually profitable approach to countering piracy in the Horn of Africa would be needed “to help deal with rebuilding the Somali state and government and society and that would take care of the piracy.”

“But international countries have not done that; instead they’ve paid a lot of money to send their navy.”

On the issue of unprofessional conduct of money dedicated to the African countries, Akuetteh said, “You look at Iraq – the American occupation there and the money sent there – there has been massive corruption in monies that cannot be accounted for, so that cannot be pinned on Africa alone.”

Oxfam on Wednesday accused several European governments of “willful neglect” and vehemently criticized them for their “sluggish” response to the Africans’ urgent needs.

The British charity said that only a fifth of the estimated USD 1 billion needed to stave off a humanitarian catastrophe in the Horn of Africa has been recieved so far.