U.N. Warns of
Drought, Food Shortages in Ethiopia
By REUTERS
NY Times,
August 2, 2002
ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations World Food
Program (WFP) said Friday that serious food shortages were affecting
millions of farmers in eastern, northern and southern Ethiopia due to
exceptionally dry weather.
The Rome-based WFP, the world's biggest food aid
agency, said in a statement that the dry weather resulted from the partial
failure of the ``Belg'' rains between February and May and a late start of
the main ``Meher'' rains from June to September.
``A monthly average of two million Ethiopians had
already been identified to be in need of food aid for the second half of
the year,'' WFP said. ``But the poor performance of rainfall means a
further two million will also need food assistance.''
In June and July, WFP along with donors and the
Ethiopian government, conducted several joint assessment missions and
found a particularly worrying situation in the farm region of Afar where
rains have failed completely, the agency said.
``At least one third of the 1.2 million people living
in the Afar region in northern Ethiopia, are in dire need of immediate
food assistance through December,'' it said.
In Afar, both water resources and grazing lands are
exhausted due to the total failure of ``Sugum'' rains between February and
April, and a late start to the ``Karma'' rains, which are normally from
July to September.
``As a result, a large number of livestock have died
and many of the remaining animals have migrated to neighboring regions in
search of pasture and water,'' WFP said.
While there are no reports of widespread acute
malnutrition in Afar yet, the nutritional situation of children, women and
the elderly is deteriorating rapidly.
``A major step has to be taken to save the remaining
breeding livestock from being lost,'' said WFP emergency officer Paul
Turnbull, after returning from a fact-finding mission to Afar.
``More food aid should be provided to the population,
which in some areas is already migrating in search of food and water.''
Other areas requiring substantial food aid due to the
poor ``Belg'' rains include: the eastern parts of Oromiya region lowlands,
several areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region,
and the northern part of Somali region.
The Ethiopian government has said it is providing
45,000 tons of food to its needy population.
``While existing emergency food aid stocks will be
distributed to the most vulnerable people, they are not adequate to cover
the current food needs,'' WFP said.
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