Ethiopia-famine,sched-lead
Ethiopian PM warns 8 million people facing starvation
LONDON, March 31 (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned
Friday that eight million people in his drought-stricken country were
threatened by famine and complained of a slow response by the international
community to help prevent a repeat of the mass starvation of the mid 1980s.
"Some eight million Ethiopians face the risk of starvation, and (in)
some
areas, in particular, in the south east, there have been reports of
deaths,"
he told the BBC.
Ethiopia is the worst-affected of the seven East African countries where
the third drought-induced crop failure in three years has left a total of
12.4
million people in need of relief food assistance.
The World Food Programme (WFP) plans to distribute 371,050 tonnes of
food
this year to just over 6.1 million people in the region at a cost of 205
million dollars.
The United States also committed itself to sending more than 400,000
tonnes
of food aid to Ethiopia, while Japan agreed to extend 7.3 million dollars
to
purchase agri-chemicals and farming machinery.
But, the Ethiopian prime minister said the amount promised was not
enough
and urged western countries to act more quickly to avoid a repeat of the
terrible famines which ravaged the country in 1984 and 1985, leaving around
800,000 people dead.
"The other donors, in particular the EU and countries in Europe, need to
be
a bit more forthcoming than they have been so far," he said.
Zenawi admitted that Addis Ababa had used relief aid in its border war
with
neighbouring Eritrea during the 1984-1985 famine, but guaranteed that such
an
act would not be repeated.
"We have given assurances that this will not happen again," he said.
Zenawi's comments came a day after the United Nations issued a warning
that
the Horn of Africa countries would be affected by a big famine if the
current
drought continued, and appealed for more help from its donor countries.
"We are facing the real possibility in two months' time of catastrophe
if
more donor aid does not arrive," Carolyn McAskie, the UN's acting chief
coordinator for humanitarian affairs, said in New York.
She said that UN agencies had appealed for 190 million dollars (199
million
euros) for food assistance in Ethiopia this year but had so far received
only
half this amount.
She added that About 940,000 tonnes of food might be needed if the
drought
continued and the planting season failed.
"The funding situation elsewhere is similarly dire," she said. "There
has
been no response whatsoever against requirements for food in Eritrea."
The WFP chief, Catherine Bertini is to embark on a nine-day visit to
Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Eritrea as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's
special envoy.
han/dc
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