ETHIOPIA: Up to six million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition in Ethiopia because of rising cereal prices and the failure of rains, the UN's children agency, Unicef, has warned.
Dry spells across much of the country since last September have led to big food shortages, humanitarian agencies say. In recent weeks, the effects have become visible, with increases in cases of kwashiorkor and severe acute malnutrition, particularly in southern Ethiopia, where 126,000 children require urgent treatment.
John Holmes, the UN's undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said he was deeply concerned by Ethiopia's food insecurity, the worst since the drought-related crisis in 2003.
With crops expected to fail following a poor March-to-May rainy season, which in good years allows farmers to produce a second crop, the situation is expected to worsen. "We will need a rapid scaling up of resources, especially food and nutritional supplies, to make increased life-saving aid a reality," Mr Holmes said.
Samuel Akale, a nutritionist with the government's disaster prevention agency, warned that the situation would get worse. "The number of severely malnourished will increase, and then they'll die," he said.
Ethiopia has reduced dependency on food relief, and has cut its infant mortality rate by one-quarter in the past five years. But with poverty still widespread, and its 80 million people the second-largest population in sub-Saharan Africa, it remains deeply susceptible to the weather's vagaries.
The World Food Programme says besides the eight million people supported by a long-term food safety net system, at least 3.4 million people are in need of emergency humanitarian aid. It appealed for an urgent response, citing a 183,000 tonne food shortfall, which would cost $147 million (€94 million) to bridge.
Unicef is asking for $50 million, but there are concerns that the international focus on disasters in China and Burma will see the appeal fall short. An earlier request for $20 million to fund its emergency nutrition programme raised $1 million.
Rising costs of fuel, fertiliser and staple foods are compounding the problem. In the six months to February, the price of maize and sorghum nearly doubled, while wheat jumped by 54 per cent. - (Guardian service)