Posted on 10-10-2002
Drought
+ War = Famine
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, October 8, 2002 (ENS) - On the western
shore of the
Red Sea, three drought stricken countries are locked in a food
emergency
that is threatening the lives of millions of people. Ethiopia,
Eritrea, and
Sudan have all been engaged in complex military conflicts that,
together
with the failure of the region's crops, have placed residents
and refugees
alike at risk of starvation.
Already under pressure due to the famine affecting 14 million
people in
Southern Africa, the relief agencies are bringing what resources
they can
muster to avert the famine in the Horn of Africa. "The early
warning signs
of a large scale humanitarian crisis are already visible. It
is obvious to
anyone that there has been a massive crop failure," Kenzo Oshima
said
Monday. The United Nations Under Secretary General and Emergency
Relief
Coordinator is in Addis Ababa during his two week tour of Africa.
Accompanying Oshima on this leg of the mission are senior officials
from
the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the European Commission and
the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID).
A recent multi-agency assessment in Ethiopia estimated that
the number of
people requiring immediate food assistance would reach 6.3 million
by the
end of the year. Just to the north, one million people in Eritrea,
with
whom Ethiopia fought a border war from 1998 until June 2000,
are hungry
too. The border lands are littered with hundreds of thousands
of landmines,
making agriculture extremely hazardous even when rains arrive.
Rainfall has
been poor since October 2001 in Eritrea with almost total failure
of the
March-June rains and the late onset of June-September rains,
threatening
the food security situation of thousands of farmers and pastoralists
who
make up most of Eritrea's working population.
Oshima, speaking in Addis Ababa at the launch of a joint UN-Government
appeal for 2003, said the best available assessments suggest
that more than
10 million people will need relief help next year. "These are
indeed
dreadful prospects, provoking memories of the terrible visions
that were
broadcast to the world from the Horn of Africa in the early
1980s," he
said. "Two years ago, Oshima said, famine was averted in the
Horn of Africa
thanks to fast and early action, effective response and good
coordination.
Nevertheless, overall success was muted by unfortunate suffering
and death.
We must learn from such past experiences and strive to do better."
Oshima
concluded his mission to Ethiopia today and flew to Asmara,
Eritrea, to get
a first hand look at the effects of drought in that country.
The current poor agricultural season could not have come at
a worse time
for Eritrea, just recovering from a devastating border war with
neighboring
Ethiopia, according to the UN agencies. A large number of people,
including
farmers, are still displaced and thousands of soldiers are yet
to be
demobilized. The continuing resettlement of Eritrean refugees
returning
from Sudan is an extra strain on the country's resources. Meanwhile,
over
the weekend in Sudan, the government lifted a flight ban over
the southern
part of the country, enabling the resumption of aid activities
on the
ground in those areas. Last week during his trip to Khartoum,
Oshima held
talks with Sudanese authorities in an effort to get them to
lift the flight
restrictions.
Still, the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan noted the continued
use of other
restrictions, and called for all parties to recognize the principle
of
unhindered access to those in need. The lack of prior notice
of the ban has
resulted in hundreds of international staff being stranded in
southern
Sudan. On Thursday, USAID Administrator and Special Humanitarian
Coordinator for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said, "This denial of
access
continues the government of Sudan's pattern of using humanitarian
assistance as a weapon of war."
For the past 18 years, Sudan has been embroiled in a complicated
civil war,
but this was the most restrictive flight ban in years. It denied
access to
63 specific locations in opposition controlled areas, shut down
all
humanitarian operations, forced the evacuation of humanitarian
staff and
placed vulnerable civilians even more at risk. The International
Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is undertaking a first,
targeted
response to the worsening food crisis in Ethiopia with a preliminary
appeal
for 821,000 Swiss francs (US$548,000) to help almost 35,000
farmers and
their dependents in Ethiopia's drought stricken northern highlands.
The
Ethiopian Red Cross Society will target the households of 34,920
farmers in
Ambassel, in South Wollo, who are in need of emergency assistance
following
the failure of the mid-season harvest earlier this year. The
Red Cross
operation aims first, to provide cash or food to the equivalent
of 15
kilograms (33 pounds) of grain per person per month between
October and
December 2002.
The second goal is to implement employment generation plans
that will
provide work for the representatives of 10,000 households, who
would be
paid cash for their efforts. This work will include terracing,
road
maintenance, water resource development and environmental sanitation.
The
provision of employment opportunities is especially important,
says a joint
report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World
Food
Programme, to prevent aid recipients from becoming too dependent
on relief.
The report says that while emergency food aid needs in Eritrea
during 2003
will be extensive, in many areas, "there is a risk of people
developing an
over-reliance on food aid with the expectation that this assistance
will be
provided on a regular basis."
The agencies say, "This is proving destructive to some traditional
coping
strategies, and creating a vicious cycle that can lead to dependency.
Therefore, it is critical that emergency food aid be provided
only to those
who cannot survive or will become destitute without it."
|