Over half the population needs emergency assistance

More than half of Djibouti's population is food insecure and needs emergency aid due to drought and high food prices, an early warning information service has said.

At least 340,000 of the country's 632,000 people are at risk, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), which is funded by the US Agency for International Development, said in a September 12 report.

A semi-desert state that experiences frequent droughts and imports all its staple foods, Djibouti is classified by the UN as both a least developed and a low-income, food-deficit country.

Four consecutive years of minimal rains have left both rural and urban populations more dependent on food imports due to poor pastoral and agro-pastoral production while international commodity prices have risen steadily.

"Dry conditions have resulted in high and rising levels of acute child malnutrition since February of this year, livestock mortality rates of 50 to 70 percent nationwide, limited food availability and access, and mass migration of households to urban areas [Djibouti City, Sankal, Assamo and Beyadde]," FEWS Net said.

The most vulnerable and food-insecure people are in the northwest and southeast, where households depend heavily on livestock for food and income, according to the agency.

"High fuel prices, high inflation, decreased remittances, border conflict with Eritrea, and a lack of sufficient government and donor resources to assist affected populations" had further aggravated the existing food insecurity.

All parts of the country faced extreme water shortages, it said.

Photo: IRIN

In response to the crisis, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing food rations to 55,000 residents in rural pastoral areas, while USAID, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and government-sponsored feeding centres for 25,000 children were reactivated at the beginning of the year, according to FEWS Net.

To meet needs and prevent a further deterioration in the food security conditions, FEWS Net said, several interventions were urgently needed to the end of 2009.

It recommended expanding food distribution to cover all 155,000 rural residents in need; restocking and asset-building programmes; rehabilitation and construction of water catchments in grazing areas; development of alternative energy sources to facilitate water pumping; and, in urban areas, a voucher or cash-for-work programme and intensive water delivery by tanker.

Resources should also be mobilised to expand the number of feeding centres nationwide, FEWS Net said, adding that the government had to improve response coordination, transparency and mobilisation to ensure a rapid and robust response.

ah/mw