Logistical delays threaten to cause shortfall

While there has been "a generally favourable response" to Ethiopia's January appeal, with over 400,000 mt of food aid pledged by donors, UN agencies warned that delayed shipments and increasing food insecurity were combining to create a situation where substantial food needs in some areas might not be met. Donors have been asked to pledge more food but, in addition, to advance the shipment of existing pledges - many of which
would ordinarily take many months to arrive - in order to avoid congestion at Djibouti port and allow the pre-positioning of food in more remote distribution centres before the main rains of June and July - if they come - make transportation much more difficult. And while food relief is urgently needed, humanitarian agencies are also concerned at a poor
response from donors to critical non-food needs, such as water provision, emergency health supplies and livestock support. "The immediate problem lies first and foremost in the lead time for deliveries and the limited capacity of ports concerned," the European Commission added on Wednesday.

Hugh Parmer, Director of the Bureau of Humanitarian Response at USAID, on Wednesday observed how the poor condition of roads linking Ethiopia with Djibouti Port, as well as a questionable capacity in terms of the number of trucks available, posed real problems for the proposed Ethiopian relief operation that would involve handling 120,000 to perhaps 150,000 mt of food monthly in the peak period from July-September. Parmer said a
proposal of his that Eritrea might allow the use of Assab port as the hub of a humanitarian corridor for southern Ethiopia - and to which Eritrea has agreed "in principle" - would probably be taken up by UN Special Envoy on the Drought in the Horn of Africa Catherine Bertini. Ethiopia has already dismissed Asmara's willingness to consider the issue as a public
relations gimmick.