Djibouti: Global food crisis adding to shortages

11 Feb 2009

Drought, high food prices and a weak response from donors have left a large proportion of Djibouti's population without enough to eat, despite some level of economic growth, the UN resident co-ordinator said.

"Djibouti has been suffering over the last few years, not only from the drought situation that the Horn of Africa is facing, but it is also one of the countries severely hit by the global food crisis," Sunil Saigal said.

Of a population of between 500,000 and 700,000, an estimated 130,000 were highly food-insecure. This, however, is a significant drop from the 340,000 cited by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) in September 2006.

Read the full article on IRIN.