Office of Emergency Operations in Africa set up to mobilize relief efforts.

• Position: United Nations

The United Nations, expanding its efforts to mobilize assistance to Africa, has established a special unit on African emergency relief, to operate under the direct supervision of the Secretary-General.

At a special meeting on 17 December on the critical situation in Africa, Mr. Perez de Cuellar announced the creation of the Office of Emergency Operations in Africa (OEOA), and named Bradford Morse, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to head the operation. He will be assisted by Adebayo Adedeji, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the African Economic Crisis and Abdulrahim A. Farah, Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Questions and Coordinator of Special Economic Assistance Programmes.

The situation in Africa was "the most massive catastrophe that has been visited upon this planet", Mr. Morse said at a press briefing on 31 January. In a score of countries with a total population of 140 million, approximately 30.4 million were seriously affected.

On 11 January, Maurice F. Strong, a Canadian national, was appointed as Executive Co-ordinator of the new African emergency operations office. Mr. Strong served as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and was the first Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He is Chairman of the North-South Roundtable of the Society for International Development in Rome, President of the Stroevest Holdings in Canada, a member of the World Commission on Environment and Development in Geneva, and a member of the Policy Board of Interaction in Vienna.

Mr. Strong thus becomes the newest member of the Secretary-General's team co-ordinate African relief efforts. Earlier, Kurt Jansson was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Emergency Operations in Ethiopia. (Mr. Farah and Mr. Adedeji are Deputy Executive Directors of the new OEOA).

Unit Aims: Mr. Morse, following the Secretary-General's announcement, explained the operations of the OEOA.

The aim of the unit, he said, would be to mobilize maximum relief efforts, involving United Nations agencies, Governments and voluntary organizations, with a minimum of bureaucracy. The operation would depend entirely on voluntary contributions, and the immediate priority would be to identify the emergency needs quickly and accurately, in co-operation with the affected countries, the United Nations system and contributors.

Ten "most critical'

Twenty countries...