Ethiopia Now Hastens Food Aid, U.N. Aide Reports

The senior U.N. official here said Thursday that the government is now distributing to famine areas the emergency food supplies that have been backlogged in Ethiopian ports. The delays had threatened to undermine the relief effort.

Relief officials estimated earlier that only 40% of the food donated by the West had actually been given to famine victims, the rest being stored in warehouses because of a shortage of trucks and a lack of security in some areas. The congestion was compounded by the arrival of a record 200,000 tons of food this month.

“The situation has changed a great deal now,” said Kurt Jansson, U.N. assistant secretary general for emergency operations in Ethiopia. “No one can say now that the government isn’t doing its utmost to unload and distribute the food.”

After touring ports and meeting officials, Jansson said the government is devoting 70% of its civilian trucks--about 860 vehicles--and 150 military trucks to moving grain. In the last three weeks, he said, food stocks at Assab, the main port, have fallen by a third, to 67,000 tons, and the amount of grain unloaded daily at the port has more than doubled, to 4,000 tons.