ADDIS ABABA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday gave Ethiopia food aid worth $37 million to help the Horn of Africa country feed over five million people in 2007, a senior U.S. official said. The donation includes 70,000 tonnes of wheat and 5,000 tonnes of peas. "The donation is in response to the continuing humanitarian situation in Ethiopia where nearly five million people will require food assistance in 2007," Vicky Huddleston, the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia told a news conference. The United States gave Ethiopia 224,240 tonnes of food-aid in 2006, which was half of the country's annual food-aid needs. The donation will help meet relief needs of the government's productive safety net programme (PSNP) for food beneficiaries in 2007. PSNP is a programme in which food-aid is provided in response to those engaged in building community infrastructure and supporting rural development. Mohammed Diab, the representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia, said floods and drought in Ethiopia had compounded the problem of food shortages in Ethiopia and appealed for more assistance.
