WFP says nation agriculturally “crippled”

Nearly a year after the end of the border conflict with Ethiopia, one million Eritreans were still struggling to meet basic food needs, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday. The UN food agency said delays in creating the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) had hampered the return of many refugees to the rich agricultural areas in and around the 25 km-wide buffer zone.

“This country is agriculturally crippled,” said WFP Country Director Patrick Buckley. “If people are not back in their villages at the latest in one month’s time, they will not be able to take advantage of the rains to start cultivating and planting,” he said. The combined effects of drought and war on agricultural production in Eritrea had pushed the price of basic foodstuffs beyond the means of most families, Buckley added.

Many of the returnees were from Eritrea’s bread-basket regions of Gash Barka and Debub, normally two of the most densely populated parts of the country. According to WFP, these regions had been producing about 70 percent of national food output before war broke out in May 1998. WFP has appealed for US $44 million from international donors to fund over 102,000 mt of food - enough to feed one million people in the war-devastated regions of Eritrea until February 2001.

WFP said earlier that the presence of land mines in the TSZ posed serious risks for returning refugees and for WFP staff operating in the zone. In its emergency report for May, WFP said that mine incidents had been “commonplace” in areas around Shilalo and Senafe. It would even be dangerous for returnees to attempt to plant crops in some areas due to the land-mine threat, WFP said.