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Hail, worms and floods
hurt drought-prone Ethiopia |
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 ADDIS
ABEBA(July 24,2008)
- Army worms, hail and floods are adding to the woes of Ethiopians
reeling from high world food prices and a drought that has affected
some 4.6 million people, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous nation has had the shorter
of two annual rainy seasons fail, but aid agencies said earlier this
month that a hunger emergency had been averted, although high food
prices were still hurting Ethiopian families.
Nearly 2,000 farmers in the southern regions of Welayeta and Gamo
Gofa lost crops due to torrential rains, hailstorms and army worms,
the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
said in its weekly report.
Heavy rains also badly affected nearly 24,000 people in Shashego early
this month, it said.
OCHA added that malnutrition remained a major concern in northern
Amhara, Oromyia and Somali regions.
OCHA quoted the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) as saying that up-coming
shipments of cereals and blended food in July and August "will
not be sufficient to meet estimated requirements."
The Ethiopian government and aid agencies estimate that 4.6 million
people in the Horn of Africa country need emergency food aid worth
$325 million to tide them through to the next harvest in November.
Donors have agreed to provide half, WFP says.
The dire conditions have revived memories of the country's 1984-1985
famine, which killed some 1 million people. Nearly 85 percent of Ethiopians
rely on subsistence farming.
Aid agencies have also issued warnings this year about similar problems
of drought and high food prices in neighbouring countries.
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