Rain, good harvests, but African emergency continues.

Rain, good harvests, but African emergency continues

While good harvests followed rains in many drought-affected African countries, the subsequent improve food situation has not ended the emergency for those nations, according to the November status report of the Office for Emergency Operations in Africa.

The report stressed the importance of seizing opportunity of the respite to meet important non-fodd requirements so that the recovery would continue. Over the coming months, the transition from emergency relief to recovery must be carefully monitored to enable timely and effective assistance so that the recent catastrophes do not become a recurrent feature in Africa, it stated.

The situations in Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique and the Sudan continued to require urgent measures, it said. Of the 91 million people in those countries, 18 million--of whom 2.2 million were displaced persons--were still affected by emergency conditions.

Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had received adequate rainfall for the first time in more than five years, which could mean good harvests. However, there still was serious risk of harvest losses due to pest infestations. An estimated 7 million of 28 million persons in thiose countries were affected, including 1.6 million displaced persons.

In Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal and Somalia, improved rainfall levels could mean better harvests for their 22 million people. Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia had experienced good...