Drought victims with immediate, food needs rise to 6.3m

Severe malnourishment highly prevails

The Reporter, Wednesday, November 13, 2002

The number of drought victims with immediate food needs increased to more than 6.3 million at the last quarter of the year 2002.

More than 29.1 percent of the total needy population is found in Ormiaya, 21.1 percent in Amhara, 15.9 percent in SNNPR, 13.3 percent in Tigray, 11.5 percent in Somali, 7.9 percent in Afar, 0.9 percent in Dire Dawa and 0.3 percent in Harari.

Due to remarkable, losses of livestock products in pastoral areas, the absence of root crops, vegetables, early and green harvests in hardest hit areas, the death of large number of livestock and poor physical conditions and low price of coffee, the immediate foods increased significantly at the last quarter of 2002.

According to reliable sources, if continuous and adequate relief food distribution is not under way on time the high risk of mortality, malnutriona and employment of negative mechanisms such as the sale of productive assets and migration will highly prevail.

Sources added that the food crisis wrrently encountered requires more intense supplementary and therapeutic feeding programmes.

At present there is already evidence of unacceptable levels of moderate and severs malnutrition in the country. There would be high need for sugar and the rapeutic diet for the severly malnourished

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2002 Media and Communications Center (MCC)