ERITREA: Fears of widespread malnutrition as food shortages worsen

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 2 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - Eritrea is in desperate need of assistance to pre-empt widespread malnutrition resulting from worsening food shortages as the country experiences a fourth consecutive drought cycle over the coming months, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

"We have met with donors and pleaded with them to come forward immediately or else the country will face a terrible food crisis later this year," Christian Balslev Olesen, UNICEF country representative for Eritrea, told IRIN on Wednesday.

"It is cheaper to give the support now to avoid starvation, rather than later, when an enormous amount of people are moving to hospitals for treatment for malnutrition," he added. "Then it will be much more expensive."

According to UNICEF, all six regions of Eritrea had malnutrition rates higher than 10 percent, and in three of them, the rates were above 15 percent.

Olesen was particularly concerned about the alarmingly high levels of maternal malnutrition in the country.

"We are specifically concerned about vulnerable groups, such as women and children," he said. "About 40 percent of lactating and pregnant women are malnourished, which is one of the highest global indicators."

For the fourth year running, relief agencies have predicted that Eritrea would experience a severe drought between the months of May and October.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) warned in a report in October 2004 that "pasture and grazing conditions are poor in most parts of the country, which, coupled with the low anticipated harvest, will seriously affect the overall food security situation in the coming year".

Almost totally dependent on food aid and trade through its government and relief agencies, the Horn of Africa country no longer has any coping mechanisms to deal with the forthcoming food crisis.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's February issue of "Foodcrops and Shortages", the food situation in Eritrea is of serious concern. The report noted that "successive years of inadequate rains have seriously undermined crop and livestock production".

"There was a time when Eritrea produced between 80 and 90 percent of its food, but that has not happened since 1998," Olesen reported. "Now, even seeds which could be planted during the rainy season are used as food."

The food security situation in Eritrea is exacerbated by the cumulative effect of drought, the conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia and the extreme poverty of its citizens.

"There is no cross-border trade because of the conflict with Ethiopia and the conflict in Sudan, and so the country must depend on food, which is either flown in or shipped in," Olesen said. "Food coming by ship takes three to four months to arrive in the country."

Eritrea was also extremely short of water, he added, with 120,000 people across the country dependent on water trucked to them by aid agencies.

Stressing the need for a rapid response from the international community, Olesen said: "Donors need to come forward now, not at the end of the year when they have calculated what they have left from the tsunami relief. No other country in the world has such a dependence on food aid as Eritrea."

Eritrea has a population of over four million and was embroiled in a border dispute with Ethiopia in 1998, which placed a great strain on its economy, which was already struggling with poverty and poor rainfall.

In December, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) delivered 42,500 mt of donated wheat worth US $13.8 million to Eritrea, aiming to alleviate the suffering of nearly a million people affected by war, widespread drought and the combined economic impact.

The WFP country director, Jean-Pierre Cebron, said in a statement at the time that Eritrea was facing a near complete crop failure in many areas of what should be its grain belt. The donation, WFP said, would support its emergency and recovery operations in the particularly hard-hit areas of Gash Barka, Debub and Anseba, over three months. It particularly targeted mothers and children.

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