- Title: [SW News] (Reuters)U.S. Sends Top Official to Assess Africa Drought
- From:[]
- Date :[Tue Feb 29 2000 - 18:15:49 MST ]
U.S. Sends Top Official to Assess Africa Drought
Story Filed: Monday, February 28, 2000 9:22 PM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fearing a new large-scale famine in the Horn of Africa, the United
States is sending a top humanitarian official to assess the situation next month, a
government official told Reuters on Monday.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said Hugh Parmer,
who runs the government agency's humanitarian response program, would leave the week after
next for a one-week trip to assess the potential threat.
``The United States is very concerned about the reports coming out of the Horn of Africa.
This trip will allow a top official to conduct a first hand assessment of the potential
impact of a drought,'' the spokesperson said.
Parmer would evaluate food stocks, meet government officials and non-governmental
organizations and conduct a general assessment of the potential crisis.
On Friday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) appealed for help to stave off
famine in Ethiopia.
It said it had approved a $137 million emergency operation in Ethiopia to feed 2.3 million
victims of crop failure, pest infestations and drought.
The government estimates that eight million people in Ethiopia will depend on food aid
this year. WFP will target only one third of the needy.
The government plans to move surplus food from other areas of the country to help others
at risk.
``This emergency operation is critical to avert a food shortage that could threaten the
lives of millions,'' Judith Lewis, WFP Country Representative for Ethiopia, said in a
statement.
``We are approaching all donors to consider our urgent request,'' she added.
The Ethiopian government has said drought, excessive rainfall, frost, black beetle and
crop damage due to hail would force eight million Ethiopians to rely on food aid this
year, according to the WFP.
The situation in Eritrea is also worrisome. Eritrean radio last month said U.N. agencies
based there had met and urged the international community to provide humanitarian
assistance to help victims of war and famine.
It said 372,000 people had been displaced by a border conflict between Eritrea and
Ethiopia and nearly 211,000 people were being affected by drought in Eritrea.
In Kenya, the WFP said earlier this month that more than two million people still needed
food aid and that it had appealed for $43.4 million over the next five months.
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