- Title: [SW News] (CARE) Jijiga Fast Becoming
Ethiopia's Hunger Epicenter
- From:[]
- Date :[24 April 2000 9:05 PM EST ]
Jijiga Fast Becoming Ethiopia's
Hunger Epicenter
Story Filed: Monday, April 24, 2000
Atlanta, GA (CARE, April 24, 2000) - Drought and the failure of the belg (short season)
rains are pushing Oogaden Ethiopians from Gode and other hard-hit areas of southern
Ethiopia, north to the Jijiga Zone. The Ethiopian government estimates that as many as
300,000 people are at risk of starvation in Jijiga, and CARE is bracing for the potential
influx of tens of thousands of internally displaced people.
CARE, the largest humanitarian organization operating in Jijiga, conducted a rapid
assessment of local community members and displaced people who reported large numbers of
migrants coming from the south. Many displaced families say they have lost as much as 100
percent of their cattle over the course of the long trek (as much as 300 miles) from Gode
and other southern areas.
"People have walked a long way and they have arrived destitute," says Barbara
Jackson, associate director for CARE in Ethiopia, who was part of the assessment team.
"More are on the way. The drought is pushing people like a rising wave."
Jackson reports that many Gode exiles were in such bad shape that they were receiving
aid from Somali refugees housed in camps along the Ethiopia-Somalia
border. Local communities also have offered assistance, but with most water sources dry
and the price of basic food grains roughly double what it was last year, resources are
stretched.
The Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission is currently conducting a
CARE-supported survey of migration to the Jijiga Zone, with results expected by next week.
CARE: CARE is one of the world's largest international relief and development
organizations, with projects in more than 60 countries. CARE began working in Ethiopia in
1984 to distribute food during the famine. The organization's activities have evolved into
development work, including small economic activity development, agriculture and natural
resources and reproductive health programs. Responding to the crisis in Jijiga, CARE is
tankering water to local and refugee communities, and will launch an emergency food
distribution of 360 tons of maize over three months, starting the week of April 24. An
estimated 20,000 people will benefit from the program. CARE also works in hard- hit Borana
Zone and East and West Haraghe, providing food, water, employment generation and other
emergency services.
CONTACT: In Addis Ababa: Wendy Driscoll, (251-1) 613422 In Atlanta: Allen Clinton,
(404) 681-2552, ext. 206
Distributed via Africa News Online.
Copyright © 2000, Africa News Service, all rights reserved.
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