Government increases food rations

Emergency food aid rations in Ethiopia have been increased after concern by humanitarian organisations over the quantity. A spokesman for the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) – the government’s emergency arm - told IRIN on Monday that rations would be increased to 15 kg per person per month. The move comes after increasing unease by the international community that the current 12.5 kg of food aid was not sufficient to help all families hit by drought. The DPPC – headed by commissioner Simon Mechale – also stated it now had sufficient supplies of food aid to increase the ration size to the accepted 15 kg. “This was one of the concerns of the donors,” spokesman Sisay Tadesse told IRIN. “Where the situation is very severe, we can contain the problem in this way.” “We also have enough resources donated by the donors,” he added. “We were facing limitations before so we could only deliver 12.5 kg.” Ethiopia is reeling from a severe drought which, according to the government, has affected some 12.6 million people countrywide. The move to increase the ration size will take place this month and follows isolated ration increases in some of the hardest hit areas of the country. Paul Turnbull, head of UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) Emergency Unit in Ethiopia, said the decision was a step in the right direction. “We welcome this decision and reaffirm WFP's support to the government," he said. But he added that more effort was needed to improve food aid targeting and distributions of aid at local level. Aid agencies had warned that the reduced supplies were hampering relief efforts and that poor targeting of food aid was also exacerbating the crisis.