Imminent rains threaten to isolate resettled people - USAID

Fears are mounting for thousands of Ethiopia’s resettled families who face being cut off during the long rains expected to start soon. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said that because of the long distances separating such families from all-weather roads, they could become isolated during the rainy season. The annual heavy rains, known as the Meher, are due to start in late May and last until September. In its latest food insecurity emergency situation report, released on 9 April, USAID also warned that the massive resettlement programme, under which 2.2 million people are to be moved within a period of three years, posed "serious humanitarian concerns". "A majority of the sites visited lacked adequate food, water, shelter, health-care facilities and essential medications, as well as seeds, farming tools, and oxen," it said, noting reports of increasing malnutrition and disease among children. The US is one of Ethiopia's largest donors. Most of its assistance is supplied in the form of food, which since 2002 has totalled more than 1 million mt, worth over US $500 million. Humanitarian sources involved in the resettlement programme told IRIN they also feared that many families might lose their eligibility to vote in the 2005 national elections. That was because under existing laws, people must have resided in their constituencies for three years before being entitled to vote. The $220-million programme is a central plank of the government’s fight to end years of dependency on foreign food aid. But aid agencies, international donors, the UN and academics have expressed concerns over the project's scale and speed of implementation. A monitoring group has been set up by donors and the government to assess the effectiveness of the programme, which was launched in 2003. USAID said in its April report that the programme appeared to be proceeding well in Tigray, but voiced concerns over its implementation in Oromiya. About 121,000 people have been resettled this year in Oromiya. USAID also said that pockets of malnutrition continued to obtain in the country, which was hit by a complex emergency last year in which 13 million people faced starvation. It added that the ongoing crisis was being exacerbated by a massive slump in world coffee prices, decreasing labour wages and environmental degradation.