Ethiopia-drought
   Famine averted in Ethiopia: UN envoy

   GODE, Ethiopia, Sept 21 (AFP) - UN special envoy Catherine Bertini said
Thursday that the risk of famine had been averted in drought-hit southeast
Ethiopia, thanks to a good response by the international community.
   Bertini, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on the Drought in the
Greater Horn of Africa, said that the United Nations had averted a crisis
here
by swiftly getting food aid to the region.
   "Now we can see a very different situation," said Bertini, who is
executive
director of the World Food Programme. "Famine has been averted in this
region."
   "Still of course there are people who are in the therapeutic feeding
centers but far fewer.
   "Still children in the hospital but far fewer," she told the press
during a
visit to a non-governmental nutrition centre in Gode, southeastern Ethiopia.
   During a trip here in April, Bertini came across many cases of
malnutrition, in some cases fatal.
   This time she praised the "positive improvments" while saying more still
needed to be done.
   Ethiopia has been promised some 945,000 tonnes of cereal this year.
   However more assistance is required on water supply, livestock and
seeds,
health and education and "also with some additional food," Bertini warned.
   This region of Ethiopia suffers from a chronic malnutrition problem
exacerbated by the cumulative effects of three and a half years of drought.
   Persistent drought threatens  14 million people in the Horn of Africa
and
some two million in the Great Lakes region.
   gue/pvh

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