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17 Nov 2003 14:18:00 GMT

Ethiopia's Somali region hard hit by drought

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Nearly 500,000 herdsmen and their livestock in Ethiopia's Somali region are in danger of food shortages due to the failure of October rains, a local official warned on Monday.

The regional government has allocated $380,000 to help in the emergency but more is needed to avert disaster, Beshir Abdulahi Ayidus, the region's head of development said.

"Rains which should have begun in early October in Somali region have failed to arrive," Ayidus said. "Water shortage has become acute in places such as Warder, Danot, Gode, Afder and Korahe."

A U.N. envoy said on Friday the Horn of Africa country had avoided a major drought disaster due to good weather, and the number of people seeking food aid in 2004 was expected to drop to five million from the current 13.2 million.

Marti Ahtisaari, the U.N.'s special envoy for humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, said however that pockets of food shortages existed in parts of the country and expressed concern over the delay of October rains in Ethiopia's Somali region.

Wagdi Othman, spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP), said there was extensive migration of livestock from the area in search of pasture and water.

Othman said food was being distributed to those facing shortages and that UNICEF and other non-governmental organisations were providing water by tanker.

In September, the Horn of Africa country, faced with its most serious drought in nearly two decades, appealed for $40 million to feed those worst hit. But weather experts said the main rainy season (June-August) was above average, raising prospects of bumper harvests in key farm regions.

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