Aid groups have criticized a £143 million (about $177 million) U.K. pledge for countries in drought and war-affected East Africa as feeble — and an 85% cut on its allocation to the region just three years ago.
Speaking to a U.N. conference for the Horn of Africa on Wednesday, U.K. Development Minister Andrew Mitchell said his government was determined to “act now and do all we can to save lives.”
But Bond, the U.K. network for NGOs, said the sum was “incredibly short of what is needed” while Plan International UK described it as “devastatingly short of the minimum required to prevent further disaster.”