U.N. envoy says famine averted in Ethiopia

GODE, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- The U.N.'s special envoy to the Horn of Africa on Thursday visited drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia and said a widespread famine had been averted by a huge international relief operation.

Catherine Bertini, also executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Programme, toured a feeding center in the southeastern town of Gode where in April images of starving children drew the world's attention to the hunger crisis.

"When we came in April this place was so much different," she told reporters.

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"The therapeutic feeding centers were overloaded with children and now we see a very different situation. A famine has been averted in this region...because of the generosity of the people around the world."

International donors have pledged around one million tons of relief food for Ethiopia, two-thirds of which has already been delivered, and aid workers say malnutrition rates are steadily falling.

Now just 65 children are being cared for at the feeding center -- a collection of stick-built huts run by British aid agency Save the Children Fund (SCF) -- compared to more than 600 at the height of the crisis.

"The admissions have dropped dramatically in the last few weeks," said Dr Million Shibeshi of SCF. "We can see the conditions for people living around here are very slowly improving."

But the situation is still fragile. The pastoralist people of the region have lost an estimated 80 percent of their cattle after successive years of drought, leaving many destitute and dependent on food aid to survive.

The U.N. says that more than 10 million Ethiopians -- nearly two million of them children -- will need food assistance at least until the end of the year -- and for much longer if the next rains due in October fail.

Diseases such as diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria are rife while medicines are either non-existent or too expensive.

In a two-day trek, Derka carried her tiny seven-year-old granddaughter Faduma to the SCF feeding center when she started to lose weight rapidly.

"When we got here the doctors said she had TB," Derka said, her feeble granddaughter staring listlessly from her lap.

"She coughs all through the night and she still isn't getting better. We have lost everything, our cattle and our camels. We had nothing to give her and she became so sick."

Many of the aid agencies who came to Gode to help in the emergency have now pledged to stay on to run health and development projects. But only a quarter of funds needed for non-food projects have been raised, the U.N. says.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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