Ethiopia Says It Will Allow U.N. to Extend Aid to Drought Areas

President Mengistu Haile Mariam will allow the United Nations to expand its emergency operations in drought-stricken northern Ethiopia, a U.N. spokesman said Sunday.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was in Addis Ababa as a special guest of the Organization of African Unity, met with the Ethiopian leader Friday. There was no comment on the meeting until Sunday, shortly before Perez de Cuellar’s departure.

The U.N. spokesman said Mengistu assured Perez de Cuellar that the world body will be allowed to send more personnel to the hungry and embattled north, where up to 3 million people need emergency food assistance. There are currently only four U.N. staff members in northern Ethiopia.

The spokesman said Mengistu also told Perez de Cuellar that the U.N. staff would in the future be allowed to travel out of the government-held towns of Asmara and Makale in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigre, “depending of course on the security situation.”