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Emergency
needs "set to increase"
in Ethiopia |
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ADDIS
ABEBA(August 9-10,2008)
- The number of people requiring emergency food aid is expected
to increase as food security has not improved, according to the latest
assessment of drought-affected areas, a senior government official
said.
"In general, the findings of the assessment indicated that the
overall food security situation in the drought-affected areas has
not improved," Abera Deresa, the minister of agriculture, told
reporters in Addis Ababa on 7 August. The assessment was of the regular
belg (short rains) season.
Abera said the food security situation had been exacerbated by the
country's dependence on rain-fed agriculture. "Failed rains in
the south in October and November during the belg season led to crop
failure," he said.
Parts of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR)
are extremely food insecure after minimal rains meant a failed sweet
potato harvest in February and a near failure of the current belg
harvest, according to a food security outlook for July to December
by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).
In southern and southeastern Ethiopia, including the southern zones
of Somali Region, pastoral and agro-pastoral populations remain highly
to extremely food-insecure due to successive seasons of below-average
rains, flooding in riverine areas, livestock disease, an army worm
infestation, conflict, inadequate humanitarian assistance, and extremely
high prices of food, stated the FEWS Net report.
Successive poor rains in November and December and later in March
and April had led to at least 4.6 million people requiring emergency
relief, according to Abera.
The government had launched an appeal for 509,916MT of food and an
additional US$38.6 million for non-food needs such as health, nutrition,
water, sanitation and agriculture.
Abera said there was still a deficit of 278,000MT of food and $3 million
to address the food and non-food requirements.
"We are trying to address the problem with the available resources
but we still need donor support," he said.
Widespread crop failure had led to critical food insecurity, prompting
increased migration, according to the July findings of the Disaster
Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA)-led multi-agency mission.
Although food security is expected to improve in the eastern parts
of Tigray, Amhara, and Oromiya region, as well as most of SNNPR from
October to December, the average seasonal rains will be insufficient
to improve food security for pastoralists in the south and southeast,
said FEWS Net.
How many more people required emergency food support would be established
after consultation with the regional governments, according to the
DPPA Director-General, Simon Mechale.
"We do not have complete information from some of the regional
governments yet," Mechale said.
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