Government warns over looming hunger

An estimated one million Eritreans will go hungry unless the donor community can give the country further support, a senior government official in charge of food distribution, said on Tuesday. "We are reaching less than 60 percent of the needy population," Teclemichael Woldegeorgis, deputy commissioner at the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission, told reporters in the capital, Asmara. "We are appealing to the donor community to continue their assistance," he added. "Now the hunger season starts, and that is the time when the majority of food is required." Teclemichael said some 135,000 mt of cereals, pulses, and oils had already been pledged or delivered so far this year, but Eritrea needed another 221,000 mt. Last year's harvest had probably been consumed already, he added, and households would have to look for other sources of food. An estimated 2.3 million Eritreans, roughly two thirds of the population, depend on varying levels of food aid. Meanwhile, the cumulative effect of previous shocks have weakened existing coping strategies, according to a recent report by the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net). "Households with weakened reserves after the fifth consecutive year of drought conditions face the prospect of liquidating productive assets (by consuming seed grains or selling breeding animals) in order to meet basic needs, further increasing their vulnerability to future shocks," it said. The report said the price of animals had gone down since last year, while grain prices had increased, significantly deteriorating the terms of trade for those who wished to sell their animals. "During January and February of this year, proceeds from the sale of one male goat sold in Asmara could purchase around 74 and 82 percent of the amount of sorghum as during the same period in 2004," the brief said. Grain prices in Eritrea had risen by between 50 and 100 percent, it added. A joint January report by the UN World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation said on average, 66 percent of income in Eritrea was spent on food, rising to 71 percent in rural areas. "Considering that the majority of households are already buying more of their food at higher prices and for a longer period this year, they are likely to have exhausted their available cash," said the FEWS Net report. Continued tensions with Ethiopia were also having an effect on food security in the country. Eritrea fought a border war with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000, and tensions have continued to be high since then. "The stalemate in the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea has continued to constrain the full realization of demobilisation activities," FEWS Net said. The report noted that the absence of many young men due to national mobilisation had reduced the range of household income-earning opportunities and coping strategies, such as livestock raising and off-farm employment. In October 2002, the Eritrea-Sudan border was also closed. "The loss of access to Ethiopian and Sudanese food markets, on which Eritrea traditionally depended for about one-third of its primary food supply, may have contributed to the current escalation of grain prices in Eritrea," FEWS Net said.