UN Relief Director Calls for Increased Aid for Africa

The United Nations' top emergency relief official says the world's greatest humanitarian challenges are all in Africa and merit increased political and financial assistance from the international community.

Jan Egeland told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday there is what he called a built in discrimination in the amount of aid flowing to Africa. He said if world leaders agreed that every human life has the same value, then the same attention would be paid to northern Uganda as to northern Iraq.

Mr. Egeland said a number of African countries are facing a triple threat of soaring AIDS cases, drought and weak or bad governance. The U.N. official warned council members that relief crises across the continent were outpacing efforts to contain them.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.