C. 33 Countries Face Food Emergency According to Latest UN Report: EuropaWorld Article, 9 March 2001
Despite some improved weather conditions 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from exceptional food emergencies caused mostly by natural disasters and civil strife, but there are problems in all Continents except Australia says the latest edition of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report Foodcrops and Shortages. In addition five countries - Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Jordan and Tajikistan - have unfavorable prospects for current crops.
The report underlines the continuing difficulty facing the world of growing sufficient food to meet internationally agreed targets for reducing the numbers of people facing hunger and malnutrition.
The FAO report says the effects of the drought in Eastern Africa are still being felt in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania, where emergency food assistance continues to be provided to some 18 million people by international relief agencies.
In Asia, Afghanistan is facing a grave food crisis caused by civil strife, successive droughts and harsh winters, while in Mongolia another extremely cold winter has killed large numbers of livestock, aggravating the food insecurity of nomadic herders who lost millions of their livestock last year, the report says.
In Central America, El Salvador's food production and marketing in 2001 will be constrained by the damaged infrastructure caused by the recent earthquakes. On the other hand, FAO sees favourable prospects for the coarse grain crops in South America.
Predicting that persistent drought and high temperatures in central and eastern Europe will negatively affect the 2001 cereal harvests, the report notes that displaced people in Chechnya and surrounding republics in the Russian Federation, continue to need food aid.
The 33 countries
facing food emergencies are located in Africa (Angola, Burundi, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya
Liberia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda),
Asia (Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan,
Korea, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), Latin America (Haiti, Honduras,
Nicaragua, El Salvador), and Europe (Russian Federation, Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia).