HORN OF AFRICA: Progress made in meeting drought-related needs, says Special Envoy

NEW YORK, 16 May (IRIN) - The United Nations and the international humanitarian community has made progress in addressing food and non-food needs in connection with the Drought in the Horn of Africa, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General and WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini said in New York on Tuesday. At the end of her mission to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Kenya from 11-19 April, Bertini noted that the scale of the crisis that could develop would be enormous if there was not immediate large-scale preventive action.

Since her mission to the region Bertini said that donors had made significant contributions, including US $67 million to WFP's drought-related operations. She added that NGOs had set up many supplementary feeding centres. A revised appeal based on rapid needs assessments in countries affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa would be launched at the end of May which would give donors a clear picture of relief needs in the food, health, water and livestock sectors. "Food needs may go up,"Bertini said. "Our last assessments were done in November and December last year and there has been no rain since." Providing humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, where the bulk of relief requirements are needed, will place extraordinary pressure on the ports at Djibouti and Berbera and the roads connecting them to the interior.

Of the estimated US $8 million required to make the necessary improvments, only $ US1 million had been received to date, Bertini said. In addition, she urged food aid importers to coordinate their shipments with WFP's newly-established logistics coordination unit in Addis Ababa to avoid congestion at the ports. The appointment of a Regional Humanitarian Coordinator until 30 September 2000, based in Addis Ababa, was crucial, Bertini said, as the drought has several regional aspects, including cross-border shipments of relief assistance, potential security concerns and the imnportance of providing assistance in a "comparable way in different countries." Bertini highlighted the need for rapid interventions in the water and health sectors.

Statistics from Gode in the Somali region of Ethiopia, one of the worst affected by the drought, show that the three main causes of death between January and March 2000 were diarrhea, measles and acute respiratory infection, Bertini said, adding that malnutrition was fourth. "Many deaths would have been prevented if sufficient medical supplies were in place," Bertini said. In response to queries on the impact of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea on the provision of humanitarian assistance Bertini said: "There is no question that the war (between Ethiopia and Eritrea) is a huge challenge".

But she added that humanitarian programmes must continue "no matter what governments are doing" as the region was larger than the two countries in conflict." The biggest problem, according to Bertini, was the inability of humanitarian agencies to gain access to those displaced by the confict. "We are not sending humanitarian workers right now into areas affected by the fighting," she said.