Now comes the question of whether it will affect Africa in other ways, too.

Could the generosity shown towards the tsunami victims benefit those who live daily with vulnerability in Africa? Or could Africa now lose out on vitally needed aid?

British government leaders are saying there is no reason why help for the victims of the present disaster should come at the expense of those who suffer from sub-Saharan Africa's more silent emergencies, and from chronic poverty.

They are hoping that Africa will benefit from the new "spirit of generosity".

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has repeatedly said he wants Africa to be a priority during Britain's presidency of the G8 this year.

He told the BBC on Wednesday that he hoped to raise the "profile and visibility" of the continent's problems in order to encourage people to offer more help.

Anti-poverty campaigners are already indicating that they will hold the governments of richer nations to such promises.

They say they are wary, based on past experience, particularly when it comes to pledges to relieve debt.

Aid organisations say they will want to see that money is not reallocated from one set of poor countries to another.

Needless deaths

Romilly Greenhill, policy officer for ActionAid, said deaths as a result of poverty and preventable diseases in Africa amounted to the equivalent of the tsunami death toll every week.

Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer in the past 25 years.

It is the continent with the largest number of people living on less than a dollar a day - 49% of the total population.

One African in three is undernourished.

Twenty-eight million people in Africa are now affected by HIV/Aids.

There are 11 million orphans in Africa as a result of Aids.

Africa also accounts for 90% of global deaths from malaria, and a woman in Africa is over 100 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in a developed country.

There are countries making sound progress.

But the prospects of sub-Saharan African countries meeting the Millennium Development Goals - the key one being to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by the target date of 2015 - are bleak if the present trend continues.

And the chronic can all too easily become the acute in Africa.

Ethiopia, for instance, which has a yearly struggle to feed its rapidly growing population, has just appealed for relief support for seven million people in 2005.

More than two million of them are in need of emergency food assistance.

While the tsunami clear-up continues, there will be events to claw the focus back to Africa.

The report of Mr Blair's Commission for Africa, for example, and a conference to review progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

But some development experts point out that one of the challenges will be to translate the emotion driving the tsunami response into the political change needed to really make a difference in Africa.

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JACK AIMS TO HELP AFRICA FIGHT HIV Exclusive By Lindsay Mcgarvie Political Editor

1 Jan 2005
JACK McCONNELL is to go on a mission to Africa to offer Scotland's help to fight the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

AIDS is so rife across all of sub-Saharan Africa that the average life expectancy is now 47 years, and as low as 37 years in some areas.

At a meeting of the world's ambassadors in London next Thursday the First Minister will announce the trip.

It is expected that the First Minister will travel to either Malawi, Kenya or Zambia, or a combination of them before the G8 summit at Gleneagles this summer.

McConnell said: 'There has been links between Scotland and Africa since Livingstone first travelled to Africa more than 150 years ago.

'I hope to go to Africa before the G8 summit to find out what we can do to help.

'Scotland is a part of the prosperous world and we have a duty to support countries which do not yet enjoy the advantages we sometimes take for granted.'

A Scottish Executive source said McConnell will strengthen links between health boards like NHS Lothian and AIDS- ridden African countries.

The insider said: 'NHS Lothian has an immense track record in dealing with HIV and AIDS. We would like to share some of our education with countries that need help.

'The aim of this trip is for the First Minister to find out what Scotland can do to help.'

Scottish teachers may also be seconded to some African countries to help set up and improve schools there.