ABSTRACT: The author describes the dreadful situation in Africa owing to hunger, and launches an appeal to the Heads of State and of Government of the countries of the European Community, urging them to take immediate measures to avoid a disaster.

(Le Soir 29/3/85)

The ten Heads of State and of Government who are scheduled to meet Friday in Brussels at the European summit are faced to a historical responsibility.

It is a scientifically uncontroversial fact that in less than 100 days, in Africa, there will be an unprecedented catastrophe for mankind and for the planet.

The forecasts are so clear that we can fully imagine the consequences of such catastrophe. The rivers of Sahel, the Niger, the two Voltas, the Senegal, the Gambia and the Shari themselves are on the point of drying up. Lake Chad - which is already reduced to 3.500 square kilometres from its initial 25.000 - could disappear almost completely. Not only human life, but vegetable and animal life as well are on the verge of being suppressed. If an exodus is attempted, it will lead only to a holocaust and an extermination. Once the rain season finally comes, the proportions of the disaster will be doubled. The potential life that remains will be swept by the floods. The regions where the few survivors will come to and where the current inhabitants already live in poverty will be border regions, but this will not last long. The desert will continue to advance, and the triumph of the desert will weigh on our collective conscience. Mankind will be forced to admit that the values of life and of the law have been viola

ted. Such limits are necessary to society at large and to any type of society.

It is to be hoped that in Brussels those who represent and govern Europe will seize this last opportunity. The catastrophe has already been announced on several occasions, and in due time. It is to be hoped that this time, the governments will listen to it and take the necessary measures.

In fact, it is not only necessary, but also possible to turn this moment, which is already a moment of agony, into a moment of resurrection and of salvation. All we need to do is want it, decide it, try it. In any case, the decision will be a radical one, a decision that will lead to life or to extermination.

We all know what the necessary and possible measures consist of. In agreement with the States of the Sahel region and with the other States, the C.I.L.S.S. which they are associated to, it is possible to transport all that is necessary for the "active survival on the spot" of the populations and of the cattle of this region by using an international "task force". Perhaps it is also possible to do something for the return of the populations that are endangered in the areas destined to the refugees, which are already in an advanced state of desertification. An attempt in this sense has been made over the last months in Burkina Faso, in Wali and in Niger. Other possibilities are: the organization of a system of retention of the waters, a system for the potentiation and defence of the oases and of the water sources, a system of advanced installations and the organization of communication infrastructures to remove the regions from their state of isolation. This is one of the possible scenarios of an intervention

program. All this depends on our conscience and political decisions, and on nothing else. In these hours, we ask the whole world to take steps to support the European Council, so that it may take a good decision.

The Manifesto-Appeal signed by 94 Nobel Prizes, resolution n. 375/81 of the European Parliament, which the French Foreign Ministry has called "historical", have all given rise to campaigns and actions in this direction.

A new Italian law allots almost $1 billion over a period of 18 months, in addition to authorizing other forms of aid, "for the reduction of the death rate", "for development", and for the defence of the populations that are victims of a policy which lets hunger, thirst, misery and extermination triumph.

The decisions adopted by the previous Council of Dublin are insufficient. Moreover, the special crisis unit for Africa in the Commission disposes neither of means nor of adequate objectives.

Even the decision recently taken by the United Nations in Geneva could turn out to be tragically inadequate. We all know that food aid can represent only a postponement of the extermination. It would only serve the purpose of ridding the developed countries of their food surplus, and could damage the countries that are to benefit of it even more, even in areas which are not yet affected by the catastrophe directly.

The Assembly and the United Nations Security Council must act at once. The problem should be tackled at a political level. The ten (or twelve) countries of the European Community can and should do this jointly and individually.

The Lome III ACP-EEC convention, with its 65 countries of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, should be entirely mobilized and operate in this sense. The failure of Cancun should be overcome. I ask the eminent personalities this text is directed to to forgive my recurrent expressions "it is necessary"...."we must". May the confidence with which I address myself to them, and the facts of having learnt all that I express in this text of mine from them - or from the bodies they represent - be reason enough to forgive me. May our ten (or twelve) Heads of State and of Government trust them and their conscience as well as their people, whose support in this task is guarantied.