Australia urged to 'do better' in sending foreign aid to 'catastrophic' Middle East, North AfricaUpdatedForeign aid spending is at its lowest level in eight years under the Turnbull Government, and amid warnings of famine, there are now calls for Australia to re-examine its humanitarian commitments ahead of this year's budget. The United Nations (UN) says war and drought across the Middle East and North Africa has left 20 million people at risk of starvation in the next six months if aid is not urgently increased. Since 2015, the Coalition has cut more than $1 billion in foreign aid. Penny Wong, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, said Labor went to the last election with a policy of increasing the foreign aid budget. Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, relief-and-aid-organisations, disasters-and-accidents, australia, yemen, somalia, south-sudanFirst posted

Source: The North Africa Journal March 02, 2017 23:53 UTC