The number of people facing food insecurity in southern African countries has increased dramatically, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Currently over 8 million people in nine countries in the region are vulnerable to food insecurity.

Lesotho has experienced a more than 70 per cent drop in domestic agricultural production, owing to a series of flooding, late rains and early frost, the Office stated. This year’s crop failures follow poor harvests last year, which has increased the vulnerability of many of the country’s poorest farmers.

After declaring an emergency food crisis in August, the Government of Lesotho earlier this month launched an appeal for $170 million to support the most vulnerable for the period from September 2012 to June 2013.

“It is very important that the international community does not forget what is happening in a country like Lesotho,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos.

“This can be devastating for a small country and the way that we are trying to work going forward, which is to support communities, households and governments to really build resilience, this is what we also have to do for the longer term,” Amos added.

Priority sectors for intervention in the appeal launched today in Geneva include food security, health and nutrition, protection and coordination.

Last month the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) approved a $6.2 million grant to support programmes carried out in the country by UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

“If we don’t get more money, people will die and there will be more humanitarian suffering. The needs will continue to grow as long as this conflict continues – that is a sad and tragic truth,” said John Ging, the Director of the Coordination and Response Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

To date, the $189 million appeal for assistance for the response inside Syria is 20 per cent funded, while the $193 million appeal for the response to assist refugees in Turkey, Lebanon Jordan and Iraq is also 20 per cent funded.

“To enable humanitarian action in an incredibly difficult, dangerous environment, funding is now the number one priority in terms of unlocking a bigger humanitarian response. That’s both for inside Syria and also for the regional refugee response,” Ging told reporters in Geneva following the fourth meeting of the Syrian Humanitarian Forum.

The forum brought together over 350 participants from Member States, regional organizations, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN humanitarian agencies to mobilize the necessary resources to provide assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by the conflict, which began last year as an uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad.

“We came together today in the face of an escalating conflict, which is having the predictable devastating humanitarian and human impact,” said Mr. Ging, who added that insecurity remains a major obstacle to the full implementation of the humanitarian response plan.

He noted that there has been a “significant” scale-up of assistance over the last month, from 500,000 people provided with food assistance last month to an expected 850,000 people this month’ but despite the increase, the situation is deteriorating. “In spite of the scale-up, the gap between the needs and the means is very much still there,” he said.

Ging appealed to the donor community to scale up their donations, stating that 20 per cent funding for both appeals is insufficient.

“We have to be prepared, sadly, for a bigger demand on us collectively as this conflict continues. And we must be motivated by the plight of the Syrian people,” he said. “We cannot become numb to their suffering.”

In a statement issued yesterday, the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Vijay Nambiar, also highlighted the ongoing suffering of the Syrian people, describing recent reports of sexual violence against women, children and men by Government forces and the armed militias known as the Shabiha, as “alarming.”

He said that the prevailing atmosphere in Syria has enabled perpetrators to commit serious human rights violations, including sexual violence, with impunity. He also stressed the need for these crimes must be fully and independently investigated, and urged the Security Council to use all its tools, including possible referrals to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“A strong signal must go to perpetrators of sexual violence that they will be held accountable for these crimes,” he stated.

Meanwhile, on the political front, the Joint Special Envoy for the UN and the League of Arab States for the Syrian Crisis, Kofi Annan, arrived in Moscow today for two days of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Annan has repeatedly called on the parties to abide by the six-point peace plan he presented several months ago to end the crisis. The plan calls for an end to violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, the start of inclusive political dialogue, and unrestricted access to the country for the international media.