US announces $524M for Horn of Africa drought, climate crisis while Germany, UK also make pledges

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Germany has announced a pledge of about $226 million for the Horn of Africa nations while the United Kingdom pledges $119 million. The United States announced at a U.N. pledging conference Wednesday $524 million for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The U.S. aid aims to spotlight the extreme effects of climate change and the worst drought in the region in decades. The U.N. has appealed for $7 billion and has received just $1.6 billion. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told would-be donors at the conference to make a major injection of funding to prevent the crisis caused by drought, mass displacement after years of conflict and skyrocketing food prices “from turning into catastrophe.”