UN envoy warns supplies to the Horn could run out

WFP director and UN special envoy Catherine Bertini has said the UN is "reviewing its needs" for humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa, because original assessments were "based on the assumption that rains would have arrived by now". In a BBC television interview she said supplies could run out by June. Bertini - who insists the present disaster is not a famine - said if additional assistance was not forthcoming then
"the consequences will be dire".

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday told journalists in Paris that famine could still be avoided in the Horn of Africa. "If those who have the capacity to help do so, we might be able to avert a disaster," he said. He made the comments after meeting Bertini on her return from the region. Annan said he had talked to leaders in Ethiopia and Eritrea about
the border conflict and warned that the fighting was hindering assistance to drought victims.