News In Brief

US announces food aid to drought stricken Africa

The United States announced Friday it had approved $32.7 million worth of emergency food for Africa. Peter McPherson, administrator of the Agency for International Development, said the food would go to several million people in the drought-striken nations of Somalia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Ghana, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe.

At the same time, he called on African nations to reverse farm price policies that he said had steadily reduced per capita food production for the past 10 years. He said the countries, which he would not name, discouraged food production by forcing down prices to farmers in order to maintain political popularity with city residents.