21752: Esser: Haiti on the brink of famine (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

http://www.news24.com

May 6, 2004

'Haiti on the brink of famine' 

Stuttgart - Haiti is on the brink of a famine with farmers reduced to
eating reserves of seed they should be planting, a German aid agency
warned on Thursday.

"It's feared the food situation in rural regions will get worse
still," the Protestant Church-linked agency Diakonische
Katastrophenhilfe said, citing its Latin America chief Michael Jordan
after a visit to Haiti.

He said farmers were eating seed because they had no other food, but
it was putting the main sowing season in danger which would then
reduce any harvest.

"We're worried about a famine," he said.

According to the organisation, more than half of Haiti's 8.5 million
people were already dependent on food aid even before former
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned earlier this year and went
into exile following a surge in political violence.

Jordan said that even now, international aid was only getting to the
towns but not the countryside, where people were left to fend for
themselves.

State structures had broken down and armed bands sowed havoc, he added.

As well as food, medicines were also critically lacking and water
supplies were only partially functioning.

Edited by Anthea Jonathan
.