Oxfam giving seeds and tools to households

Some 5,301 Eritrean families in areas of the country worst affected by recurrent drought will benefit from an Oxfam programme to provide them with seeds, fertiliser and agricultural tools, the British charity said.

"For the past five years, the cumulative effects of recurrent drought, in addition to border tensions and possible conflicts, have seriously affected people's access to food," Oxfam said in a statement on Wednesday.

"In response to the shortage of seeds, we are distributing emergency agricultural aid to 5301 households in Mai Mine and Areza in Debub [region south of the capital, Asmara]," it added.

The agency said each family would receive a plough, a 50 kg bag of fertiliser and a voucher to purchase seeds.

Oxfam added that it had just completed an earth dam with a capacity of 100,000 cu.m. to improve water sanitation in the area, and planned to introduce small-scale irrigation farming.