DATE=4/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA/ AID APPEAL (L-O)
NUMBER=2-260983
BYLINE=BARBARA SCHOETZAU
DATELINE=NEW YORK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// See also CR 2-260934 of 4/4 ///
INTRO: Humanitarian aid groups are urging the
international community to take immediate action to
avert widespread human suffering in Ethiopia.
Correspondent Barbara Schoetzau reports from New York.
TEXT: The humanitarian groups say that after three
years of drought Ethiopia is heading to a point that
could rival the disastrous famine of 1984 and 1985.
The southern region of the country is particularly
hard hit. One local Ethiopian welfare group says 14
children die every day from famine. Ponds and wells
have dried up. Cattle, which provide most southerners
with their livelihood, are dying by the thousands.
Humanitarian groups working in the region say the
lives of eight million people are currently at risk.
But they say immediate and massive help from the
international community can still prevent a full-scale
famine.
The humanitarian group Save the Children and the U-S
Agency for International Development recently
airlifted about 40 tons of food and nutritional
formula to Ethiopia. The United States has pledged to
meet half of the requirements outlined by the
Ethiopian government. And the European Union is
planning on sending 800-thousand tons of food aid.
Rudolph von Bernuth of the group Save the Children
says attention has begun to focus over the last week
on the seriousness of the situation in Ethiopia. But
getting help to the people in time presents relief
workers with another set of problems.
/// VON BERNUTH ACT ///
One of the problems that we face is that even if
those food supplies were to materialize -- first
of all, it does not address the issue of
migration. It does not address the issue of lack
of water. And it does not address the issue of
the port capacity throughout the region which,
frankly, would have an extraordinarily difficult
time managing the importation of 800-thousand
tons of food in a timely enough manner to get to
the people who need it by the time they need it.
So we are facing enormous logistical as well as
resource constraints.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Von Bernuth says relief groups are considering
opening up a port in Somalia to get the food and water
that is needed at once into Ethiopia.
Once the situation is stabilized, Michael Delaney of
Oxfam America says the people of the region will still
need help in the form of animals, seeds, tools and new
and deeper wells for long term rehabilitation of the
region.
/// DELANEY ACT ///
We are seeing many families who have lost their
cattle, their sheep, have sold their tools and
seeds for the next harvest. So along with this
current situation that they are facing, we know
for sure that this is going to have long-term
implications because people are not going to
have the seeds or tools for the next planting.
/// END ACT ///
Somalia and parts of Kenya and Eritrea have also been
affected by the drought. (Signed)
NEB/bjs/LSF/gm
05-Apr-2000 14:59 PM EDT (05-Apr-2000 1859 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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