From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Mar 04 2010 - 08:18:05 EST
UNICEF wants $24.8 million for Eritrean fund
04 Mar 2010 12:05:23 GMT
Source: Reuters
* UNICEF to help more than a million Eritreans in 2010
* Poor rainfall has hurt agriculture-based economy
By Jeremy Clarke
ASMARA, March 4 (Reuters) - 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".
[ID:nLD653416]
Asmara accuses humanitarian organisations of trying to tarnish Eritrea's
image by inventing statistics. (Editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Andrew
Roche)
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