18 May 2000
Text: Lives of 16 Million at Peril in Horn of Africa
(USAID's Parmer outlines U.S. food aid to region) (4170) The lives of more than 16 million people are believed to be at risk in the Horn of Africa because of a long drought and civil unrest, according to a top U.S. Agency for International Development disaster assistance official. In testimony before the House of Representatives International Relations Committee on May 18, USAID Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Humanitarian Response Hugh Parmer said the United States already has sent 684,000 metric tons of emergency food aid to the region. Parmer, who visited the region earlier this year to assess the situation, said that an additional 175,000 metric tons of food has been secured for Ethiopia, plus 50,000 metric tons for other countries in the Horn -- bringing the total U.S. assistance package to 909,000 metric tons. USAID, he added, anticipates that it will have to increase its estimates of those in need when new disaster assessments are made in June. A new agency Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has been sent to the region and is expected to arrive May 18, he noted. Parmer told the lawmakers that the problems in the Horn have not caught USAID unprepared. "Because of the frequency of harsh climate in the Horn, our development assistance programs in the 1990s, and in large part since the 1984-86 Ethiopian drought, have focused in good measure on emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, sustainable agriculture, environmental practices, and food security," he said. He credited the USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) for supplying much of the regional information that is used in forecasting weather and drought conditions in the Horn. Following is the text of Parmer's remarks, as prepared for delivery: (begin text) Statement of Hugh Q. Parmer Assistant Administrator Bureau for Humanitarian Response United States Agency for International Development Before the Committee on International Relations House of Representatives May 18, 2000 Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the situation in the Horn of Africa and to respond to your questions regarding the efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development to address the growing problems of hunger in the region, particularly the acute situation in Ethiopia. Sadly, since I received your invitation, war has resumed between Ethiopia and Eritrea. This will undoubtedly complicate the situation but will not deter our efforts to provide aid to those in need. Hunger and disease, which potentially affect millions, especially children, concern us all. We intend to continue, in concert with your advice and consultation, our engagement both humanitarian and diplomatic in the region. Drought and food shortages are not infrequent occurrences in this part of Africa. War and other forms of political turmoil have also shortened people's life spans and curtailed economic development in many parts of the region. Many of you will remember the Ethiopian famine of 1984-1986 to which the United States responded with one of the largest-ever emergency relief efforts. During that famine, 1.5 million metric tons of food were distributed, reaching an estimated 7.1 million people. Droughts and significant emergency needs also occurred in Ethiopia in 1988, 1991 and 1994. Today's emergency may be of an even greater magnitude. An estimated 8.3 million people are now at risk of acute hunger and disease in Ethiopia alone, with 16.5 million people affected by drought and civil unrest in the seven countries of the Horn, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. To date, appeals for 1.4 million metric tons of food aid for the Horn have been made internationally. The planned United States government emergency food aid response, both P.L. 480 Title II and Section 416(b) resources, as of May 1, is 684,000 metric tons to the region. I am pleased to be able to announce to you today that we have recently received approval for further food allotments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Section 416(b) resources in the amount of 175,000 metric tons (MT) for Ethiopia and 50,000 MT for other countries in the Horn. The new allotment boosts our total commitments to 909,000 MT. We expect the number of people in need to increase once new assessments are completed in June. In addition I have ordered a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to the region consisting of a leader, deputy and several sector and logistics specialists. The DART arrives in country today, May 18. The current drought and assessed failure of the "belg" (short) rains in Ethiopia in April of this year is the culmination of dry conditions and reduced soil moisture, developing since the last good harvest throughout most of the country in 1998, with the exception of the southeasternmost region. The current weather throughout the Horn appears to be caused in part by "La Nina" weather patterns. These same patterns have affected adversely much of the world's climate, resulting in unusual floods, drought, bitter cold and extreme heat in various parts of the world, with ensuing economic damage over the last two years. In the Horn, problems began as early as 1997 in the pastoral areas of southeastern Ethiopia, slowly spreading to the rest of the country and other regions of the Horn. This year's failed crop marks the seventh consecutive failed harvest in the south/southeast. These problems have not caught USAID unprepared. Because of the frequency of harsh climate in the Horn, our development assistance programs in the 1990s, and in large part since the 1984-86 Ethiopian drought, have focused in good measure on emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, sustainable agriculture and environmental practices, and food security. The Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), a regional forecasting and early warning system conceived and funded by USAID, is in large part responsible for the abundant data we now have on current and developing weather patterns in the Horn. P.L. 480 Title III policy reforms, negotiated with the government of Ethiopia, were responsible for the creation of the emergency food security reserve. Title III wheat was used, starting in 1993 and continuing through 1999, to help stock the reserve and to enable the government to address various food emergencies. USAID funds helped make ready the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) within the Ethiopian government. The Commission is Ethiopia's first line of defense against the recurring drought emergencies. USAID funds assisted in increasing the capacity of nine Ethiopian non- governmental organizations (NGOs) which are now participating in the relief effort. Similar efforts have taken place in our programs throughout the region. The recent outbreak of war may make further progress in these areas increasingly difficult. Looking to the near future, the weather forecasts predict normal to above normal rains for the first two months, June and July, of the "Meher" (main) crop season. Such rains would allow restoration of soil moisture and seed germination, providing a good start to many crops. This is in line with the historical pattern in "La Nina" years. A normal to good "Meher" crop season would result in considerable relief of famine conditions in much of the country in November-December. Meteorologists maintain, however, that the current weather system is unusual, making even short-term forecasting difficult. As Assistant Administrator of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Response, responsible for coordinating the large majority of U.S. emergency assistance to the region, I visited the Horn in March of this year. I wanted to witness firsthand the size of the problem, the efficiency of our delivery system, and to determine the challenges that lay ahead. on my return, I stopped in Rome to review the situation with the leadership of the United Nations World Food Program. I also stopped in Brussels at the European Commission and in Paris to speak with French officials in the Foreign Ministry responsible for humanitarian relief. It is clear that the coordinated efforts of the international community will be necessary to adequately address a crisis of this magnitude. I shared my experiences and relayed what I learned in an effort to ensure that potential partners were as aware and committed as we are, as I know that Congress is interested in seeing that other donors contribute their fair share. On March 14 of this year, with a team of USAID specialists, I visited Gode town in the Somali region of southeast Ethiopia. What I saw, coupled with statistics presented to me by the Ethiopian Regional Ministry of Agriculture Southeast, was sobering. According to the Ministry, 99 percent of the cattle, 80 percent of the horses and 20 percent of the sheep in Gode zone had died by the end of February. In one small area, I witnessed at least 50 carcasses from recently deceased cattle. In the fifteen days prior to our arrival, 61 people in Gode town had reportedly died, 45 of whom were children under five. This was in a town of 47,000 inhabitants. I visited a therapeutic and supplementary feeding center that Save the Children/U.S. had built within the last two weeks. The therapeutic feeding center already had 86 severely malnourished patients suffering from marasmus, or wasting. There were 850 moderately malnourished patients in the supplementary feeding center. The BHR/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) grant to Save the Children/U.S. funded care for only 500 patients. It was obvious to see that the funding would soon have to be increased. I spoke with one woman waiting at the center who told me the last time she saw rain was one and a half years ago. Two of her three children had died. In response to the dire situation in Gode, I ordered an airlift of 40 tons of special foods for therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with BHR/OFDA funding, began relief flights into the area soon after I departed. Today there are twenty-nine organizations running nutrition programs in this area, as opposed to the one that was operational during my visit. On March 15, I flew to the northern highlands in the Amhara region, which was the epicenter of the 1984-86 crisis, and is an area frequently affected by drought. Half the 1.4 million population of North Wello is currently dependent on food assistance. I was distressed to learn that distributions are irregular and consist only of half rations. With the food shipments that recently arrived in the region, distributions should become more regular and increase in size. The added complication now, of course, is that the war effort is concentrated in the north, and may become a factor in delivery. While in Ethiopia, I met with Prime Minister Meles and Commissioner Ato Simon Mechale, head of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission. Prime Minister Meles compared the memory of the 1984-86 drought in Ethiopia to the Jewish remembrance of the Holocaust. He indicated that the reactions of both peoples were similar in that they found past events so horrible that they would take extraordinary measures to see that such an event was not repeated. "Never again" was the phrase he used to underline the country's resolve not to let the current emergency deteriorate into a famine comparable to that of 1984-86. The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia's efforts to address the immediate effects of the crisis are crucial. The government has drawn stocks from its grain reserve. In March, it also issued a tender for the local purchase of 100,000 metric tons of food. In discussions with Prime Minister Meles, he assured me that a sufficient number of trucks would be made available for distribution purposes. He promised not to allow a resurgence of border hostilities with Eritrea to hamper the relief efforts. He told me that responding to the drought was as, or more, important to the government as its dispute with Eritrea. In my discussion with Meles about the possibility of using the Eritrean port of Assab as a back-up measure, Meles preferred to direct arrivals of food to the ports of Djibouti, Berbera, and possibly, Port Sudan, for the immediate future. As you know, we are using Djibouti and Berbera to off-load supplies for Ethiopia. If these prove insufficient, we will consider all other port options in the region and will urge all relevant governments to cooperate. At my next stop, Kenya, on March 19, I was able to meet with officials of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Nairobi. The SPLM officials presented to us briefly their assessment of the situation in southern Sudan. Southern Sudan has been affected both by the ongoing civil war and, to a much smaller extent, by the current drought. A total of 2.8 million people are considered at risk, largely from the affects of civil war, with a small percentage of people being directly affected by the drought. In addition to relief, USAID has provided assistance that has resulted in an increase in agricultural production in the Western Equatoria region of southern Sudan and has helped to repair roads so that surpluses from Western Equatoria can be transported to areas of need. I was able to discuss points of issue with the SPLM, notably the memorandum of understanding (MOU) required for signature by nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, working in southern Sudan. Currently those agreeing to the MOU are working under a 90-day trial period that ends in May, after which time the SPLM has agreed to review the terms of the agreement, and if deemed necessary, adjustments will be made. I relayed to SPLM officials that USAID had no intention of back-filling behind NGOs that had decided to not sign the MOU. USAID will not provide funding to the NGOs who did sign, or to new NGOs, to cover projects that were left unfulfilled by the NGOs who chose not to sign. USAID continues to rely on SPLM assurances that it will respond to the needs of its populations affected by NGOs who refused to sign the MOU and withdrew from Sudan. While I did not visit the drought-affected areas of northwestern Kenya, conditions there have deteriorated since my departure, even though it has begun raining in some parts of Turkana, the hardest-hit district. People in Turkana have already lost over seventy-five percent of their animals. Further rains will be necessary to restore soil moisture and rejuvenate pastures. BHR/OFDA will be funding the rehabilitation of water sources, animal health, human health and nutrition in Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera, and Moyale Districts in northern Kenya. I next traveled to Baidoa and Qansahdere, Somalia, where I visited rehabilitated health centers, primary schools and water sources. I was the first American official to visit Baidoa since the departure of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in April of 1995. When we arrived in Baidoa, I was met by the local leadership of the Rahaweyne Resistance Army. They greeted me with open arms, saying that they would never forget what the United States did for the people of Somalia. The Americans would always be welcome in Baidoa, they told me. An estimated 1.2 million people are considered at-risk in Somalia, stemming from war-related displacement or trauma and from drought. Somalia is experiencing increased difficulties and malnutrition as a result of drought but is not, at this time, on the brink of famine. U.S. food commitments total $14.5 million. Since my departure from Somalia, the rains have started, albeit three weeks late. Roads and airstrips have sporadically been inaccessible due to the heavy rains in Bay and Bakool regions. The rains are providing some relief in water availability, however, it is too soon to know if the rains will continue and prove helpful to the crops. BHR/OFDA is funding health, nutrition and water programs in Bay and Bakool, the two regions most affected by the drought. My next stop was the small country and port-city of Djibouti. I visited Djibouti in order to tour the port facilities, meet with the U.N. World Food Program logistical staff, and to learn more about how the drought has affected Djibouti itself. The Djiboutians have invested significant efforts in port improvements over the last six months, and the U.N. World Food Program is working to further expand the capacity of the bulk cargo berths. BHR/OFDA is contributing to this effort. Being the hottest country on earth, Djiboutians are accustomed to little rainfall, but this year has been particularly dry. Before leaving, I pledged 2,765 metric tons of food in response to the U.N. World Food Program appeal to help relieve the situation. The U.S. Embassy recently declared Djibouti a drought disaster. The Ambassador's request of $25,000 was given to CARITAS to continue its special feeding efforts. The last stop in my trip to the Horn was Eritrea. From March 22 to 24, accompanied by USAID personnel, I visited camps of internally displaced persons -- their displacement caused by the hostilities with Ethiopia. I met with representatives of the United Nations and other donor organizations, traveled to the Debub region of the zone bordering Tigray, Ethiopia, and spoke with President Isaias and other national and local government officials. While effects of the drought were evident in some regions; in Eritrea, the situation is much more manageable and considerably less severe than conditions observed in Ethiopia. An estimated 760,000 people are currently at risk in Eritrea, about half from the drought, and the balance from the events of the war with Ethiopia The drought is the most severe in the Anseba, Gash-Barka, and northern and southern Red Sea zones. The situation is being monitored and preparations made to respond if there is further deterioration. The European Union (EU) assessment team, which had visited the drought areas of Anseba the week before my visit, indicated that coping mechanisms were stretched to their limit in the region and that the population would require additional assistance if the drought continued to worsen. In conversations with Eritrean President Isaias, I stressed the importance of resolving the legalities of previously misappropriated food and its use by the Eritrean government. This issue had created difficulties with the provision of food aid but now appears close to resolution. The possibility of using the port of Assab as a discharge point for food destined for Ethiopia and the creation of a humanitarian corridor were also broached with President Isaias. After some discussion, President Isaias agreed to consider this option favorably if the modalities could be worked out. The final leg of my trip took me to Western Europe, where my task was to alert potential European donors to the gravity of the situation and encourage them to join us in a response. I am pleased to report this portion of my trip yielded substantial benefits. Whereas before my visit, European response to the crisis had been limited, announcements of assistance by our EU and French colleagues came within a week of my return. Of the current figure of 432,000 metric tons pledged by the European Union to Ethiopia for this calendar year, 260,000 tons represents new commitments. After learning of our decision to airlift food into Gode, the French government also sponsored an airlift one week later. I also discussed with French humanitarian officials the possibility of using the French military base in Djibouti if a strategic airlift might be needed in the future. I understand that the French government has subsequently offered use of its base to the humanitarian effort. On the last day of my journey, the U.N. Secretary General announced the appointment of Catherine Bertini, the Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Program, as the U.N.'s special envoy for the Horn. Ms. Bertini's ensuing trip to the region continued to spotlight the problems that I reported to her when we met in Rome. During my trip, I had ample opportunity to reflect on what needs to take place in response to the crises and how to surmount the obstacles facing us. In the six weeks since I returned, much progress has been made. As mentioned earlier, donor pledges have increased and our own efforts have grown tremendously. If there are reasonable rains and harvests in the next planting season, the numbers will ease in the fall. If the "Meher" (major) rains, due to begin in June, fail, then the current crisis could reach proportions of the 1984-86 crisis. The most daunting challenge immediately in front of us is ensuring that the necessary logistics are in place for moving resources to those in need. The internal logistical constraints in bringing food overland to the hardest-hit regions of Ethiopia pose some of the greatest challenges, given the distance of many of the hardest-hit regions from the sea and the poor state of roads. Unpaved sections of road, washed out bridges, security threats and shortage of working trucks, replacement parts, tires and fuel are the principal problems of the many that we are facing. Because of my concerns with the logistics chain, I dispatched a logistics team in April to study the issue and make recommendations. Our current approved food commitments for the Horn total $373.9 million, of which $277.8 million are for Ethiopia. About fifteen percent of the total commitment is non-emergency food aid resources programmed as part of ongoing commitments of the BHR/Food for Peace program. An estimated 108,000 tons of U.S. Government food assistance for Ethiopia arrived in Djibouti port in April, with another 100,000 tons a month scheduled to arrive in both May and June. The U.S. tonnage is then projected to drop off to a level of about 70,000 tons each month in July and August. With some upgrades currently being undertaken by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the port of Djibouti should be largely adequate to handle this quantity of food. In March, BHR/OFDA provided approximately $600,000 to the World Food Program for this effort. Based on the USAID logistics team's recommendation, we are contributing an additional $1.75 million to the World Food Program for emergency repairs to the road that runs from the Djibouti port to the Ethiopian border. In addition, Canada is contributing $2.6 million to the port upgrade, while Switzerland is providing $4.2 million to road repair in and around Djibouti. Further funding to address logistical problems is either already committed or expected in the near future from various international donors. Significant European Union and bilateral donor contributions are also programmed throughout this period. The European Union plans on using the port of Berbera in northwest Somalia for a significant portion of its food aid, which will relieve some of the stress on the Djibouti port. Berbera presents a good secondary port of call, even though it is smaller and shallower than Djibouti. Some work on the roads overland from Berbera to Ethiopia will additionally be required. BHR/OFDA is supporting port upgrades totaling $308,000. The EU is supporting a five-year project for bridge and road work from Berbera to Hargeysa. The U.N. World Food Program has established a special logistics cell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia responsible for coordinating shipping arrangements of all donors, air movements, and in-country food movements. The cell will also liaise with the involved governments, NGOs, international organizations, and donors to ensure effective coordination. In addition to food, BHR/OFDA has funded over $14 million in non- food emergency relief activities in the Horn. Of this amount, $10.2 million is specifically for Ethiopia. These emergency programs include water and sanitation projects, nutritional feeding and health programs in the hardest-hit areas of Ethiopia, as well as the logistical upgrades mentioned earlier. I want to emphasize that security along these routes is a pressing concern, especially in the south. The most severely affected populations live in the remote Somali and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia. Critical to an appropriate response is the availability of an adequate number of partnering organizations to oversee proposed program interventions in this area. Security for humanitarian staff as well as supplies in the Somali and Oromiya regions must be strengthened and enhanced. In the last eight weeks, several attacks on convoys have occurred, resulting in at least one death and several injuries. The war has the potential to aggravate security concerns. Ongoing development assistance to the region totals $53 million annually. Ethiopia receives $37.8 million, Eritrea $9 million, and Sudan and Somalia $3 million each. Many of these programs, such as the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), impact on the ability to respond to crises. Sustainable agricultural, and environmental practices are part of USAID's strategic objective, along with those of the host country throughout the region. The generosity of the American people is well known, Mr. Chairman, especially in the face of natural borne disasters over which there is limited control. The ugly face of war makes many of these problems even more urgent and difficult. Our humanitarian and diplomatic efforts must continue. The U.S. Agency for International Development is prepared to meet the challenges of bringing relief to the people of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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