Urgent help needed to prevent disaster

UN envoy Catherine Bertini has toured the Horn of Africa

The international community must give more aid soon if it is to prevent a disastrous famine in the Horn of Africa, the United Nations' special envoy for the region Catherine Bertini has said.

We urgently request support... so we can prevent a disaster

Ms Bertini

Ms Bertini said that although the United Nations was very grateful for the pledges of help received so far, they were nowhere close to what was needed.

Speaking at the end of her tour of the drought-stricken regions in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, she said the timing was critical.

"We urgently request support... so we can prevent a disaster," she said.

Shortfall

She said there was no famine as yet, but support was needed to avert a disaster.

"People have been coping (by) selling their animals and relying on crops ... (but they are) towards the end of their own coping mechanisms," she said.

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation said on Wednesday that the needs of the region were likely to escalate "due to grim prospects for the current agricultural season and low foreign exchange earnings".

Among the many hungry

"The international community has a rare opportunity to be proactive for the prevention of famine... for the prevention of deaths from various diseases," she said.

More had to be done to provide water, either by digging new bore holes or bringing supplies in and more basic medicines were needed.

"In Gode, a minority of deaths have been caused by malnutrition -- the majority have been caused by measles, pneumonia, coughs, diarrhoea. These are preventable," she said.

Ms Bertini, who visited drought victims in the countryside as well as heads of state and government officials, said the region's transport and security also needed to be improved.

Conflict

Ms Bertini faced tough questioning on how much of the people's plight was man-made, exacerbated by a regional conflict such as the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, civil war in Somalia and tribal tensions between pastoralists in Northern Kenya.

Is conflict the cause?

She said that droughts such as the current one in the Horn of Africa were always a potential disaster and security issues were challenges that had to be overcome.

But she avoided saying the conflict had contributed to famine.

"We cannot take sides in this, or say which is right or wrong," Bertini said. The aim had to be to prevent a child dying, she said.

She said the international community should give more attention to conflict resolution. "There is only one long-term relief if there is man-made disaster - that is peace."