Warning over food needs as UN official visits region

Ethiopia could be facing an unprecedented drought with up to 14 million people in desperate need of food aid next year, according to USAID’S Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). In a report, it said that additional food aid was “urgently required” to prevent a disaster and “widespread starvation” in Ethiopia. Failed rains in many parts of the country mean that harvests could be down some 15 percent on previous years. Delayed rains have also shortened the crop-growing season. “Hence, timely delivery and distribution of additional food aid is crucial for maintaining minimum nutritional levels,” FEWS said. “Delivery of basic food aid now will avoid the need for widespread and expensive supplementary and therapeutic feeding later." It quoted figures from the Ethiopian government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) which said a likely scenario next year would be 10.2 million people requiring more than 1.5 million mt of food aid. "Under a worst-case scenario, 11-14 million beneficiaries would require 2.2 million mt of food aid for 2003," FEWS said, quoting the DPPC figures. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) cautioned that although it had received pledges of food aid, Ethiopia still faced a shortfall of 75,000 mt of cereals to the end of the year. The UN is hoping to draw attention to the impending crisis with a visit to the region, starting this week, of Kenzo Oshima, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. A UN statement said he would visit Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. His visit to Ethiopia and Eritrea was aimed at "drawing attention to growing humanitarian needs brought about by drought-induced food shortages", the statement added.