The United Nations special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa on Wednesday kicked off a tour of the drought-stricken region in Eritrea where concerns are mounting that food aid may be rotting in warehouses.
Kjell Magne Bondevik opened talks with officials here as diplomats said they feared tens of thousands of tonnes of stockpiled food aid was spoiling due to Eritrea’s decision last year to limit the distribution of such assistance.
The discussions are intended “to ensure that effective humanitarian actions are taken and lead to longer-term solutions to problems of drought”, the United Nations said in a statement announcing Bondevik’s arrival.
Since September, Asmara has cut the number of free food aid recipients by 95%, from 1,3-million to about 70 000, citing the importance of self-reliance and urging the creation of “food-for-work” programmes instead.
However, aid workers say they have not yet seen such schemes in action and diplomats say about 100 000 tonnes of donated food aid is progressively rotting in storage in Eritrea even as the drought continues to take a toll.
“Donors are worried that in a few months time there could be a situation of famine,” said one Asmara-based diplomat. “By then the stocks will have rotted away and the donors will be blamed.”
Although not hardest hit, Eritrea is one of several countries suffering from a searing drought that the UN says threatens about 11-million people throughout the Horn of Africa with starvation.
Aid agencies believe thousands of Eritreans are at risk although the severity of the situation in the country is unclear as the government has not asked for an assessment and has declined to back an international aid appeal.
Last year, the UN estimated that two thirds of Eritrea’s 3,5-million population needed food aid.
Eritrea had a better harvest in 2005 than in previous years, but the UN warned it was not enough to recover from damage caused by years of rain failures that has been exacerbated by border tensions with arch-foe Ethiopia.
“Recurrent years of drought, compounded with the ‘no war-no peace’ situation, have overstretched coping mechanisms of large groups of the population,” the UN statement said.
“This is further aggravated by competing urgent needs,” it said.
From Eritrea, Bondevik, a former Norwegian prime minister appointed to his present position as humanitarian envoy to the Horn of Africa by UN chief Kofi Annan in February, will travel to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. – AFP