News In Brief

Aid cuts to West Africa risk chaos, Oxfam says

Recent cuts in development aid, due in part to pressure from the United States, will cause economic chaos and perhaps collapse in West Africa's huge drought-hit Sahel region, the British charity Oxfam said today.

The report blamed aid cuts for exacerbating Sahel problems. The United States , it said, used political power to cut International Development Association funds for 1984-86 to $9 billion when the World Bank affiliate said it needed $16 billion to give poor states interest-free loans.

The report also cited a 30 percent cut last year in programs run by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Mali, Niger, and Chad are all suffering from the drought.