Food and water shortages escalate

Recurrent droughts, in addition to rising food and kerosene prices, have exacerbated food insecurity in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti, according to a senior UN official.

"The people have been struggling since 2003 because of drought, which has reduced pasture and increased population migration," Marcus Prior, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman for East and Central Africa, told IRIN on 31 July.

"The drought has had a heavy toll on the livestock, with 40 to 70 percent dying in various parts of the country," Prior said.

The country has a high population of nomadic pastoralists. Food insecurity had, however, forced the nomadic people to cut the number of meals they ate per day and reduced the quality of the food, the spokesman added.

Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in the country averaged 17 percent, rising to 25 in the northwest. A rate of 15 percent is regarded as the threshold for emergency.

Successive droughts had also increased migration from rural to urban areas as the population moved in search of jobs. As a result, unemployment in Djibouti City stood at 60 percent, according to a July report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).

"Rising food prices are having a double impact of not only reducing food security but also the ability of families to assist each other," Prior said. Most of the rural population relies on remittances from relatives in urban centres.

"The rising cost of living is undermining food security more than usual, particularly for poor households whose monthly income is far below the cost of the minimum expenditure basket," stated the FEWS Net report. Kerosene prices had also gone up by 50 percent compared with the five-year average.

Djibouti imports most of its food requirements. In addition to increased obstacles to food access, Djibouti City was facing critical water shortages, with rationing being initiated by the government.

"In the worst case, a total of 341,000 people [54 percent of the population] are expected to need emergency food and water supplies by August," stated the FEWS Net report.

According to Prior, WFP was increasing the numbers of rural people targeted for food aid from 47,000 to 80,000, after a food security study in May. At least 50,000 urban dwellers would also be targeted in future aid distributions, he said.

At least 55,000 people are in urgent need of food assistance in Djibouti City, according to FEWS Net.

WFP needed US$18 million for operations in Djibouti until March 2009, Prior said. "We urgently need assistance from the international community to provide the support vitally needed by the population."

Rainfall had been below normal in June, with the coastal belt area of Obock, the grazing area between Tadjourah and Obock and pockets in the Arta district receiving none at all, FEWS Net said.

"Successive droughts, high staple food prices, decreased remittances, high inflation ... and a lack of sufficient resources to respond adequately to the current food crisis may lead to famine in certain areas, particularly in the northwest and southeast pastoral livelihood zones," FEWS Net warned.

The government of Djibouti and the humanitarian community had launched an appeal for $31 million to deal with the impact of the food crisis, the head of the regional office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Besida Tonwe, said on 22 July.

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