UNICEF head visits drought-stricken Afar

The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, flew into the drought-stricken northeastern Afar Region on Thursday to see first hand the scale of the food crisis in Ethiopia. Bellamy is due to meet the president of the region, Ismael Ali Sirro. She is also expected to administer measles vaccinations to children, as well as giving them vitamin A supplements. The agenda includes a visit to a primary school in the region which has one of the lowest literacy rates in a country where seven million children are not in school. Bellamy, on her third visit to Ethiopia since 2000, will witness the distribution of anti-malaria bed nets aimed at preventing the disease. UNICEF, which is providing the insecticide-treated mosquito nets, is aiming to cut the death rate by 25 percent by 2005. Malaria is the biggest killer in the country. Afar – one of the most inhospitable and remote areas of Ethiopia – has seen malnutrition rates of 30 percent, and tens of thousands of cattle have died in the drought.