Reagan Adds $411 Million to Famine Aid for African Nations

President Reagan announced an additional $411 million in emergency food and disaster aid Thursday to eight African nations hardest hit by severe drought, bringing U.S. famine relief spending in the stricken area to $1 billion for the current fiscal year.

Democratic critics, however, charged that the new aid will be inadequate.

Reagan also announced a new long-range “Food for Progress” program that will attempt to persuade Third World nations to adopt modern farming techniques and to reform their own agricultural policies “based on market principles.” Details of the program’s operations are not yet available.

In a statement, Reagan declared that “even with all our country has already done to feed the starving, more--much more--must be accomplished by our nation in the months ahead to meet this challenge.”

A total of $235 million of the new funds will be requested from Congress, and the remaining $176 million will be transferred from existing programs, M. Peter McPherson, administrator of the Agency for International Development, said at a White House briefing. About $590 million already had been appropriated during this fiscal year.

The funds, which will be used to purchase 1.5 million tons of food, are expected to meet half the needs of the 14 million people judged to be most seriously affected by the crisis, McPherson said.

The countries that will receive the aid are Ethiopia, Chad, Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Mauritania and Mali.

On Capitol Hill, congressional critics of the Reagan Administration’s foreign aid policy said the new appropriation was far from enough and that they would introduce a bill providing about $1 billion in new funds for African relief.

Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger, said the group of about 60 congressmen instead will seek $787 million in immediate food and transportation relief and $225 million in long-term agricultural recovery aid.