Government appeals for more aid to combat malnutrition

Ethiopia on Wednesday launched an appeal for an extra US $48 million in foreign aid for tens of thousands of children amid worsening malnutrition across the country, officials said. The head of the government's emergency arm, Simon Mechale, said the government needed an extra 66,000 mt of food and $22 million for health, nutrition and water. The flash appeal, which was announced at the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), came as the UN warned that thousands of children could die if help was not forthcoming. Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said at least 60,000 children needed urgent therapeutic feeding because of growing malnutrition in the country. More than half a million children also needed urgent help, he added, as a result of growing hunger and diseases like measles and meningitis. "These children need help," Ljungqvist said, stating that on average, 300,000 children in Ethiopia died each year from nutrition-related problems. UNICEF said it urgently needed $13 million in the next 60 days to provide therapeutic feeding to "save the lives" of as many as 170,000 children. A further 360,000 children were malnourished and needed help, the agency added. Multi-agency teams, led by the DPPC, conducted field assessments in eight Ethiopian regions in late April and revised both emergency beneficiary numbers and their food and non-food aid requirements. Simon said a further 70,000 impoverished farmers now needed aid, bringing the total to around nine million people. Several hundred thousand people may need additional help at the end of the year. "[The appeal] was developed in response to an increase in the number of vulnerable people requiring both food and non-food humanitarian assistance since the beginning of the year," he said. "There is concern about the survival of children in parts of the country," he told relief agencies, UN officials and donor organisations. The appeal means the government needs an additional $50 million on top of the $272 million they appealed for at the end of last year to help disadvantaged Ethiopians. So far, $102 million – less than half that amount - has been received. Simon said some 3.8 million Ethiopians needed emergency food aid, while 5.2 million people were receiving aid as part of a flagship scheme to end dependency in the country. He added that the rising malnutrition was partly due to delays in the delivery of food and cash to people around the impoverished country. Ethiopia, which has a population of around 71 million, is one of the world’s 10 poorest countries, with average annual incomes of just $100. "The cry for help has a familiar ring," Georgia Shaver, head of the UN World Food Programme in Ethiopia and acting UN humanitarian coordinator, said. "The situation is not good and I don't think we should underestimate it."