The food needs for people threatened by
famine in the Horn of Africa may very well exceed the original estimates
of 836,000 metric tons originally requested by the United Nations, a UN
spokesman said today in New York.
Spokesman Fred Eckhard said it was estimated
that more than eight million people were at risk of dying of starvation
in Ethiopia, of which 2.3 million people were at immediate risk. Ethiopia
had been in drought condition for about three years, and rains continued
to be been erratic, he said.
Last January, the UN Country Team in Ethiopia issued a $190 million appeal to address the needs of some 7.7 million drought-affected and 350,000 war-affected people. The World Food Programme last month allotted emergency aid of $137 million to help the estimated 2.3 million people at immediate risk.