Port capacity increased by WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has completed its renovation of the Port of Djibouti, increasing its original capacity by at least 50 percent. WFP said on 18 April that the “special operation for infrastructure and equipment support” was launched in November 1999 and cost roughly US $1 million. WFP representative in Djibouti Fatma Samoura told IRIN renovations meant the port now had a capacity “at least 50 percent greater” than before the outbreak of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war, and was capable of dealing with up to 7,000 mt of cargo per day. Samoura said the during last year’s famine, WFP managed to deliver more than 600,000 mt of food aid to Ethiopia through Djibouti in only 10 months. Until 1998, the main route for food aid going to Ethiopia was through the Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa but, following the outbreak of war between the former allies, was switched to Djibouti. According to Samoura, WFP forecasts that between April and December of this year, 235,000 mt of food aid will pass through Djibouti on its way to the drought-stricken regions of southern and southeastern Ethiopia. Although the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia was gradually improving, many areas were still struggling to recover from the effects of last year’s drought, WFP warned. On 10 April, WFP launched an operation to feed two and a half million pastoralists and small-scale farmers in the pastoral lowlands of southern and southeastern Ethiopia and the agricultural areas of Welo, Tigray, North Shewa, Harerge and Welayita.