UN warns over East Africa hunger

www.nazrett.com Home of Ethiopian News and Blog Breaking News More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa need food aid because of two years of poor rainfall, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says. The body says cuts in its funding have made it more difficult to feed people across Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia. The WFP says an added problem is that congestion in Djibouti's port is holding up the flow of relief supplies. Some 14 million people in the region were said to need food aid last year. The BBC's Uduak Amimo, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, says the WFP is particularly concerned about Eritrea because it cannot get any reliable information. The agency says it cannot collect data because of movement restrictions and work permits not being issued. It says it is concerned that malnourished children and pregnant women are not getting the help being offered across the rest of the region. Meanwhile, congestion in Djibouti's port is holding up relief supplies. The Ethiopian government and WFP are trying to persuade Sudan and Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland to allow their ports to be used instead.