Cardinal appeals for Sahel aid in Easter message
April 05, 2012
The Honduran cardinal who serves as president of the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies has issued an Easter appeal for the drought-stricken Sahel.
“In West Africa’s Sahel region, 12 million people will not have enough to eat over the next few months,” writes Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas Internationalis. “The hunger spreading across Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania is due in part because of drought and pest. The crisis has manmade causes too: our global system of food favors multinational corporations and weakens the small farmer.”
“The international community has not acted,” he adds. “Those Sahel countries still have less than 50% of the aid they needed.”
“Our hope is that rich countries hear the calls of the poor and motivated by justice provide the Sahel with the food aid it needs,” he concludes. “Our hope is also that world leaders realize that our global food system is broken. They must fix it and make it work for everyone.”
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