Global perspective Human stories

UN food agency launches multi-million dollar appeal for aid to Eritrea

UN food agency launches multi-million dollar appeal for aid to Eritrea

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today launched a multi-million dollar appeal to provide emergency relief food to hundreds of thousands of Eritreans whose lives have been devastated by three successive years of drought and consequent crop failure.

The agency is asking for $33 million to fund over 90,000 tonnes of aid - enough to feed 738,000 drought victims from May 2001 to February 2002.

"This is triple the number of drought-affected people WFP fed in the year 2000," said Patrick Buckley, the agency's top official in the country. "Eritrea and its people are facing a desperate scenario in the year ahead. Year after year of failed rains, exacerbated by the country's recent war, have left a quarter of the population with little or no food reserves."

Eritrea's arid and semi-arid regions have suffered extreme drought conditions for the past three years with serious consequences for the local population. Total grain production last year was only 85,000 tonnes compared to 320,000 tonnes in 1999. Early predictions indicate the winter rains will not be enough to break the drought cycle and the first harvest of 2001 will remain extremely low.

Furthermore, according to WFP, last year's border conflict with Ethiopia took its toll on food production, forcing tens of thousands of farmers to abandon their farms in the rich grain producing areas of Gash Barka and Debub, which yield over 70 per cent of the national food requirements.

The agency's effort is part of the UN Horn of Africa Appeal for 2001, for which $353 million was requested to assist 13 million people affected by drought.