A WREXHAM man headed to parliament to urge the government to step up the UK’s response to the hunger crisis in East Africa. 

Christopher Hall attended a Westminster event organised by anti-poverty organisations The ONE Campaign, Action Against Hunger, The Aid Alliance, Oxfam, Save the Children, UNICEF, RESULTS UK, Plan International, CARE International, and VSO.

He met with a variety of MPs including Ben Lake MP for Ceredigion, Preet Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston and Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield Southgate to talk about the severity of the crisis, urging them to escalate the matter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The event was opened by Conservative MP Vicky Ford and Labour MP Hilary Benn, and saw speeches made by Development and Africa Minister Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Minister for International Development Preet Gill MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary MP David Lammy.

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It is now estimated that one person is likely to die every 36 seconds because of acute food insecurity in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, which are facing the worst drought in more than 40 years. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by food insecurity. Experts fear that famine will be declared in some regions in East Africa in the coming months.

Campaigners argue that to date, the UK Government has disproportionately cut funding to the humanitarian response in East Africa despite the severity of the crisis. As funding decisions are made for April onwards, campaigners are urging the UK to go much further with its support.

The Leader:

Hunger on this scale was last seen in the region in 2017. Then, the UK provided £861 million. Early action helped to stave off the worst impacts, saving thousands of lives. This time, despite forewarnings as early as 2020, the UK has so far provided a fraction of previous funding, spending just £156m of humanitarian funding - equivalent to a cut of 80 per cent. Charities warn that this is woefully inadequate.

Campaigners like Mr Hall are calling on the government via their local MPs to increase funding to support people impacted by the hunger crisis in East Africa, and to restore the UK aid budget to 0.7 per cent of gross national income.

Mr Hall said: “Because of the huge cuts to the UK aid budget, the UK is not doing enough to respond to the hunger crisis in East Africa, which is putting millions of lives at risk.”

In response, Preet Gill said she would be writing to the Prime Minister on this issue. She said she recognised that the money sent in overseas aid needed to be directed towards more co-operatives operating on the ground and micro finance aimed at assisting those who were struggling locally rather than sending the aid to large, remote corporations.