The terrible massacre presents us with a very great Crisis in Africa, and a very great challenge.
Next we come to the problem of the developing Crisis in Africa, and I am sorry that the hon. Member for Chigwell, with whose speech I said I would deal, has now had to leave the Chamber.
As for getting on without men, they are now in the situation where, because of their colonial policy, they are on the edge of a Crisis in Africa, knowing that if two divisions were required there they could not put them there.
I am glad that we are able to have a debate on this important subject during a time of considerable Crisis in Africa.
Most people, who have been extremely generous, understand well that there has been no extra money from the Government to meet the Crisis in Africa.
It is important to emphasise that the Crisis in Africa is not a short-term weather failure.
No one, least of all no one who followed the growing Crisis in Africa during preceding years, should have been in any doubt that we were heading for a major disaster, and this Government, with others, must accept their share of responsibility for that.
Clearly, there is a Crisis in Africa.
It has been useful to have a chance to consider what is unquestionably the terrible Crisis in Africa.
As my hon. Friends said, the Crisis in Africa has deeply affected people throughout the world, awakening a new public awareness of the problems facing that continent and awakening a great desire to help to overcome them.
We have not recognised that this Crisis in Africa presents a new dimension to the problem and it demands extra resources from all the major donors.
It is astonishing that, despite the Crisis in Africa in the past decade, and during a period of massive individual giving in this country, British aid to Africa suffered a decline of 26·5 per cent.
During the Crisis in Africa in 1984–85, which received so much publicity and to which the people of Britain and the rest of the world responded so well, the Government provided aid of £36 million at today's prices.
But the Crisis in Africa is a long way from being over.
All of that has been done at the same time as playing our part in providing aid to Bangladesh and to alleviating the Crisis in Africa.
It is to the shame of the House that we have not had an opportunity to debate the Crisis in Africa before the recess, because, before we meet again, it will have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, unless the EC and the Government move swiftly to do something about getting food aid faster to those African countries suffering from drought and famine.
Secondly--my question relates to an issue raised many times by my noble friend on another Crisis in Africa, Zimbabwe--has the Commonwealth a role?
The scale of the Crisis in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world is made that much worse by HIV/AIDS, andthe hon. Member for Richmond Park (Dr. Tonge) is right to draw attention to the scale of that crisis.
James Morris told the UN Security Council that the Crisis in Africa is part of a worrying new global phenomenon of shifting weather patterns that have led to unparalleled natural disasters.
The main thrust of my remarks will be on the theme that G8 conditionality is now inescapable if the Crisis in Africa is not to become chronic.
There is clearly a Crisis in Africa with HIV/AIDS.
When we look at the scale of the Crisis in Africa, we are bound to ask whether it could have been avoided.
Does the Minister accept that there is a serious Crisis in Africa, where around 10 million people are co-infected with HIV and TB?
Will the Minister accept that there is a serious Crisis in Africa, where around 10 million people are co-infected with HIV and TB?
If we have another humanitarian Crisis in Africa, who will take the lead?
As well as the unfolding tragedy in Zimbabwe, there is a second Crisis in Africa, in Darfur.
I believe that the Crisis in Africa is extremely serious.
The horn of Africa Crisis is beginning to fade in our memories, and as it is not the force it was in the media, our attentions start to turn to another crisis.