Statement at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment

"To us in the OAU, drought, desertification, floods and cyclone, locusts and epidemics are some of the natural disasters that have confronted Africa over the years. Man-made disasters including wars, civil strive, problems of refugees and displaced peoples have added and compounded situations of disasters on the continent. While, in the area of man-made disasters we have been able to establish regional mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution we have unfortunately, not able to establish a comparable regional mechanism for disaster prevention, management and response." - Dr. Salim, November 11, 1993