By Our Staff Reporter
The United Nations World Food Programme said Tuesday that the quick donor response to the current emergency crisis in the country had helped avert a major disaster. The emergency in Ethiopia, which affects more than 7.8 million people, is due to the on-going drought and crop failure.
Judith Lewis, WFP country representative and director for Ethiopia, expressed her appreciation of the donor response. "The contributions that we are seeing being confirmed right now have been in the works for weeks," said Lewis.
"While the response has been encouraging, we are still very concerned about the situation in the Somali Region. WFP is working together with the Government of Ethiopia, other agencies, the donor community and NGOs to co-ordinate targeted food and food related non-food intervention," Lewis said. "Regular monthly distributions of food rations have been on-going in the region and are now complemented by contribution of oil, pulses and other food items donated by Governments and NGOs."
More than 130,000 tonnes of food has arrived in Djibouti since January 2000. WFP has repaid 24,331 tonnes to the Ethiopian Governments EFSR in the last two months. Expected Djibouti port arrivals for the period April - June 2000 is 415,000 tonnes. Port congestion is not expected to occurs due to co-ordination in arrivals.
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