WFP approves funding for drought stricken areas

WFP has approved a US $40.5 million emergency operation in Ethiopia for a period of seven months from June through December. A WFP statement said the operation will provide approximately 103,250 mt of food aid to assist some 1.2 million people in drought-stricken areas of the country. It is also intended to alleviate food insecurity due to the failure of the belg [short] rainy season ending in May. “Drought-prone areas such as Tigray, Wello and Haraghe are most severely affected by food insecurity, but some of the high rainfall regions such as Arsi and highland Bale have transitory food insecurity caused by erratic rainfall,” the statement said. The target recipients are pregnant and nursing mothers, children under five, the disabled and the elderly. A statement from Ethiopia’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission on Friday said that up to 4.6 million people were facing food shortages resulting from “natural and man-made disasters”. Meanwhile, a senior Eritrean foreign ministry official, Tesfamariam Tekeste, blamed the current food shortage in Ethiopia on the country’s military spending, ERINA news agency said.