Eritrea produced less than 10 percent of its cereal needs for human consumption during 2002, following consecutive crop failures. The results of conflict and drought as well as pervasive poverty are in the process of producing the most severe food crisis since Eritrea's independence, affecting more than half the population.

Eritrea is currently reeling from severe shocks to its asset base, already undermined by armed conflict, drought and poverty. Insufficient rainfall for crops and livestock, labour shortages due to mobilisation, the pressure of internally displaced people and returnees, and an economic tailspin contribute to an overall picture of high food insecurity.

The US agency Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS) today warns about the humanitarian crisis that is evolving in Eritrea due to the accumulated food deficit. The Eritrean government, which declared its first drought alert on 24 July 2002, already in November estimated that 1.4 million people of a total population of 3.34 million would be affected by drought and food scarcity in 2003.

In addition to those 1.4 million directly affected by the drought, FEWS reports that an additional 910,000 Eritreans are targeted for assistance, comprising internally displaced people, returnees, soldiers to be demobilised and vulnerable urban dwellers. The government of Eritrea has appealed for 477,000 metric tons of food aid for 2003, of which 290,000 tons are for the drought-affected population.

According to the US agency, Eritrea now faces "a convergence of many factors that have led to heightened food insecurity across all livelihood groups." Female-headed households, children and agro-pastoralists were however particularly vulnerable.

Following three years of drought conditions, Eritrea in 2002 registered the lowest rainfall of the past fifteen years. In the face of the very poor performance of the short (azmera) and long (kremti) rains, cereal production has fallen to 54,400 metric tons, more than 70 percent below the recent 10 year average (191,900 MT) and the lowest since independence in 1993.

Also the so-called "wild food production" had been badly affected by the last years of drought. Consumption of wild foods is an important drought coping strategy, especially for pastoralists, FEWS explains.

Eritrea faces an uncovered cereal deficit of up to 300,000 tons this year and "rural household access to food is likely to deteriorate sharply," FEWS warns. Cereals were already in short supply in some remote rural areas, compounded by the border closures with Ethiopia and, more recently, with Sudan that hamper informal imports. The current harvest is expected to be exhausted early in 2003.