Photo credit: UN News Centre
Failed sorghum crop, as the current El Niño pattern, being the strongest ever recorded, has caused severe drought in Ethiopia. Photo: UNOCHA Ethiopia/Lemma Tamiru
As food emergency intensifies in drought-hit Ethiopia, UN appeals for more resources
Despite the well-coordinated response already under way to offset the impacts of an El Niño-induced drought in Ethiopia, the United Nations humanitarian wing has warned that the scale of the developing emergency exceeds resources and that more funding is urgently needed to ensure food distribution and child protection amid ongoing malnutrition and water shortages.
“Resources currently in-hand do not guarantee a full relief food basket for beneficiaries,” said the latest weekly update on Ethiopia compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
It also added that “without additional resources, the food sector projects a full pipeline break in a couple of months.”
$1.2 billion is needed for food relief to10.2 million people. However, the current appeal is only funded by one third.
Given the lead times necessary for the procurement of relief items, the Government and its international partners have called for early action to this slow onset natural disaster.
Fragmentation of delivery is of critical priority as it has negative implications for nutrition and health, and the beneficiaries have to travel more than twice to the food distribution point within short period.
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is helping deliver food to 2 million people and has started using the humanitarian supplies from the Port of Berbera in Somaliland.
Read the full article: UN News Centre
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