The UN food agency (WFP) urgently needs 222 million US dollar to avert a major food crisis in Ethiopia, where millions are struggling to cope with drought and high prices, it said on Monday.
The Ethiopian government and aid agencies estimate that 4,6 million people in the Horn of Africa country need emergency food aid to tide them through to the next harvest in November.
The government and aid agencies put out a call in mid-June for 325 million dolar to deal with the failure of the shorter of two rainy seasons combined with soaring food and fuel costs. WFP Country Director Mohamed Diab said donors had only agreed to provide half of that so far, and urged them to give the rest without waiting for the emergency to become more acute.
High prices and a lack of food supplies in Ethiopia are forcing WFP to bring in food aid from outside the country, from places such as South Africa and the Black Sea region.
The agency says the cost of white maize, the staple food for most poor Ethiopians, has risen more than 150 percent on Ethiopian markets in the past year, and grain has become so scarce that prices for most domestically produced cereals are higher than imported supplies.
Ethiopia is the epicenter of the crisis on the Horn of Africa, with 10,3 million people, or 12 percent of its population, in need of emergency aid in the next few months, the WFP said.
But the risk of starvation has spread in an arc that runs from Somalia and Djibouti through to Kenya and Uganda.
While launching the emergency appeal Monday, Diab said: – Millions of lives will be at risk if we can’t get food to them within the next two months.
The WFP estimates that it will need an additional 420 million dollar in order to meet food needs across the Horn for the rest of the year.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
