Senior UN official calls for more assistance

UN emergency and relief head Kenzo Oshima has called on the international community to give urgent assistance to drought-stricken Ethiopia. Speaking on Sunday in West Haraghe in eastern Ethiopia - one of the worst affected areas - Oshima, who is the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said government efforts must be assisted by international cooperation. Oshima was in Ethiopia as part of a 12-day mission to Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. He welcomed the relief effort for its “reasonably effective and quick” response but urged rich nations to act now before the drought took an irreversible grip on the country. “We sincerely hope that the international community will understand the crisis that is in the making in this country and in other parts of the Horn so that the assistance that is needed will come in time,” he stressed. He praised the early warning system in Ethiopia – which he described as one of the best in the world - for alerting the international community before the situation got out of hand. “There is a lot more that needs to be done but as far as the initial move is concerned I believe we have been reasonably effective and quick,” he said. Holdbrook Arthur, the World Food Programme's Regional Director for Eastern and Central Africa, warned that the current drought could exceed the famine that hit Ethiopia in 1984 in terms of needs. “Based on assessed needs of that time I think were are getting close to that situation if not worse,” he said.