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Roundup: Serious Food Shortage to Linger This Year in Sub-Saharan Africa
Despite the weather improvement, the Sub-Saharan African region this year still have to face a food shortage, which may be no better than that of last year, said a UN agency Monday.
The total food aid required by this region this year will increase about 5 percent more than that of last year, predicted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Shukri Ahmed, a senior FAO economist, told a press conference here on Monday that the number of people facing hunger in the region is estimated at some 28 million, adding that 16 countries in the region will face exceptional food emergencies, including Kenya, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Sudan.
He said that continued food assistance is necessary in all countries of eastern Africa and the Great Lake Region as well as in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"FAO is seeking some 140 million US dollars to help restart agricultural production and improve food security in the flood, drought or war affected countries in Africa," he said, adding that international help is urgently needed to improve the livelihood of those suffering from hunger.
In a report released on the same day, the FAO says that eastern Africa will bear the brunt of food shortages as the effects of recent devastating droughts and ongoing civil strife and conflicts continue to undermine the food security of an estimated 18 million people.
In Kenya, the severe drought in 1999-2000 seriously undermined the food security of nearly 4.4 million people and resulted in a massive relief operation, the U.N. food agency said, adding that despite some improvement, the food supply situation is still precarious.
Elsewhere in eastern Africa, food supply is precarious for more than 1.8 million people in Eritrea caught up in a two-year war with neighboring Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, despite the improved overall food availability, some 6.5 million people affected by successive droughts and wars depend on food aid.
Sudan is also facing serious food shortages in western and southern parts of the country due to drought, the report said, adding, "the long-running civil war is exacerbating the situation by impeding farming activities and distribution of relief assistance."
Somalia has seen a decline in the number of people in need of food assistance from 750,000 in 2000 to 500,000 this year. However, recent nutrition surveys indicate persisting high malnutrition rates, reflecting slow household recovery from a succession of droughts and long-term effects of the years of insecurity.
The report called the food outlook in the DRC "bleak" and said that food assistance is still needed elsewhere in the Great Lakes Region, including Burundi and Rwanda.
According to the report, the harvest prospect will deteriorate in Southern Africa following severe flood and dry spells, coupled with low maize prices at planting time. In addition, thousand of people have been displaced by floods in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, which also caused considerable loss of life and damage of the infrastructure.
The food supply situation has tightened, following reduced harvests, notably in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger. Food distributions to the affected populations are underway and the governments of the countries have appealed to donors for assistance.
Sierra Leone and Liberia remain heavily dependent on international food aid, despite some improvement in food production, while Guinea is faced with rebel attacks in border areas, which are affecting agricultural activities and have caused new population displacements, the report says.
Ahmed stressed that food aid is only one part of the FAO's work in tackling food shortages, saying that what is equally important is that should disaster occur, FAO will join hands with the governments concerned to immediately help the farmers with tools, seeds and other necessary inputs for the coming season to reduce their dependence on aid.
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