UNICEF wants $24.8 million for Eritrean fund
Reuters
March 4, 2010
Jeremy Clarke
* UNICEF to help more than a million Eritreans in 2010
* Poor rainfall has hurt agriculture-based economy
ASMARA - The U.N. children's agency UNICEF is appealing for $24.8 million to expand its programmes in Eritrea, where aid agencies say drought is causing widespread food shortages and child malnutrition.
UNICEF says it will help more than 1 million Eritreans in 2010 -- approximately a quarter of the population -- with supplementary and therapeutic feeding to "prevent further deterioration in their already poor nutrition status".
Some $13 million is earmarked for nutrition, UNICEF said in its 2010 humanitarian action report, adding that in some regions nearly 17 percent of children were suffering acute malnutrition.
East Africa is facing a devastating drought. Aid agencies estimate 23 million are in danger, with 13.7 million in neighbouring Ethiopia at risk of severe hunger.
Poor rainfall has hurt Eritrea's agriculture-based economy, say aid agencies, who rank hunger levels in the country among the worst in the world.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates as many as two in every three Eritreans are malnourished, the second-highest percentage in the world after the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
Asmara denies there is any widespread hunger or food shortages in the country and places restrictions on the work of humanitarian organisations.
In a recent interview with Eritrean media, President Isaias Afwerki said hunger was "non-existent". Late last year he pledged "no hunger in 2010".
Asmara accuses humanitarian organisations of trying to tarnish Eritrea's image by inventing statistics. (Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Andrew Roche)
One Comment
Jeremy Clarke used a picture of severely malnourished and sick Somalian child to accompany the article on Eritrea. One wonders what Jeremy is up to. It is totally offensive and inappropriate for Rueters to use such pictures to give Eritrea and Africa as a whole a bad image in the eyes of the world. Africans should not tolerate such despicable individuals to roam around Africa and making a living by false and distorted reporting.