15/4/2005
WFP Expands Emergency Food Operation In Drought-Stricken Eritrea As Malnutrition Rates Rise In Ethiopia

Yet again the rains have failed in Eritrea, this time for the fifth consecutive year, causing crop failure and drying out major pasturelands, in this Horn of Africa country that borders the Red Sea. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said this week that it had expanded its emergency operation there to cover nearly a quarter of a million more people.

"The spring Azmera rains have begun to fall, but once again they are erratic, light and localised. Herders are migrating earlier and longer distances with their animals in search of grazing lands and many Eritreans must queue for hours at fewer and fewer water points. Even in the areas
around the capital, water shortages are acute, with deliveries taking place only once or twice a week," WFP Country Director Jean-Pierre Cebron explained.

While Eritreans are selling livestock and skipping meals, the Government cannot afford food imports. A destructive war with neighbouring Ethiopia, which ended five years ago, wrecked the economy. Eritrea's three most fertile regions – Anseba, Debub and Gash Barka – are
at their driest since 1998. About half the children under 5 are underweight, as well as 42 per cent of pregnant and nursing mothers, one of the highest rates in Africa, WFP said, citing Ministry of Health statistics.

Meanwhile WFP warns that the future of three million hungry Ethiopians is in jeopardy with malnutrition on the rise. Little over half the food aid required for this year has arrived. “The lack of funds is making it impossible for WFP and its partners to adequately meet the needs of hungry Ethiopians,” said agency country director Georgia Shaver.

With food commodities, particularly cereals and beans, available on the local market if only donors provided cash, WFP urgently needs $33 million to continue feeding 1.5 million people.

“We are beginning to see families resorting to survival mechanisms in the worst-off areas of the country,” Ms. Shaver said. “In the south, which experienced drought and a failed harvest, up to 6,000 children have already dropped out of school, as their families send them in search of food or work. “In addition, in one part of the Somali region, in the east of the country, severe malnutrition rates were already reported at 4.8 per cent in January, with five out of 10,000 affected children dying on a daily basis,” she added.