Annan launches appeal to help 33 mln vulnerable people worldwide

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday launched a $2.5 billion appeal to help 33 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and protection - a move that was immediately welcomed by the members of the Security Council.

"The 2.5 billion dollars that we are seeking today is a large amount - but it is far less than what the world spends on military purposes in a single day," the Secretary-General told donors gathered at UN Headquarters in New York for the launch of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals.

Annan noted that the world was currently focused on the plight of Afghans who, along with more than 30 million war-and drought affected people around the world, would have suffered through yet another winter "largely off camera" had it not been for recent events. "Is it not ironic that it took a terrorist attack and military reaction to raise awareness of the vast humanitarian needs in Afghanistan?" he asked.

While welcoming donor efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people, the Secretary-General urged those present not to forget the 17 other complex humanitarian crises identified in the UN appeals. "In Angola, Somalia and Sudan, long-running civil wars continue to threaten already fragile livelihoods," he noted. "In Indonesia, 1.3 million people have become internally displaced in less than three years because of new internal conflicts." And while the past year had brought new hope for the future in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone, "massive humanitarian assistance remains urgently needed."

With the number of deliberate attacks on UN staff again growing dramatically, the Secretary-General stressed that "the primary responsibility for the protection of civilians, and for safe and unhindered access to them, lies with host governments and the parties to a conflict."