US to provide more than 25 mln dlrs to Ethiopia

April 20, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The United States today said it would provide more than 25 million dollars in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia which suffers from chronic food insecurity.

Michael Hess, the assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said the package includes 17 million dollars in food aid and 8.3 million dollars in non-food aid aimed primarily at women and children.

Hess, here at the end of a tour of drought-stricken east Africa where millions of people, including more than two million in Ethiopia, are now threatened by starvation, said the money would come on top of previously pledged US assistance amounting to 48 million dollars (38.9 million euros).

“I am impressed to see some progress in the efforts underway to provide food security,” he told reporters at a news conference at the US embassy in Addis Ababa.

He said the new money would be directed mainly to nomadic pastoralist communities that have been badly affected by the recent drought.

“We want to see an all round activity to improve the life of the pastoralists,” Hess said.

(ST/AFP)