Ethiopia: Number needing emergency food aid declines

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

February 10, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – The number of people in need of emergency food relief in Ethiopia’s has seen a sharp decline from last year, says the East African country’s minister for agriculture.

According to agriculture minister, Mitiku Kassa, the figure has dropped to 2.8 million people from an estimated 5.2 million a year ago.

The government said earlier that a bumper harvest had cut the number of Ethiopians needing emergency food aid.

However the failure of rains from October to December in the arid eastern Somali region and the southeast of Oromia region are “having a significant humanitarian impact,” the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia, Eugene Owusu, said at a joint briefing with Mitiku in the capital, Addis Ababa.

“Two-point-eight-million still require relief food assistance,” said Owusu. “And we also know an additional 956,000 require targeted supplementary feeding. An estimated 107,000 children may continue to require treatment for severe acute malnutrition, and 3.3 million people will require screening for more nutrition and Vitamin A supplementation.”

The restive Somali region, will account nearly 40 percent of the total relief needy who are in danger of severe malnutrition.

The Somali region has been the scene of clashes between government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel group. The insurgents have been fighting for self-determination for the people of the Ogaden, a region that borders Somalia, for 16 years.

Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, has another 7.8 million people who receive food or cash under what is called the “Productive Safety Net Program”. Under this preventive program, Ethiopians receive food or cash to support their, often large, families.

The program is financed by donors including the U.S., the European Union, the World Bank and the UK.

(ST)