Famine Feared in Ethiopia as Rebels Hit Aid Convoy

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia —  A U.N. official predicted Friday that thousands face death by starvation in the near future in drought-stricken northern Ethiopia, where Eritrean rebels, in their latest attack, reportedly killed 85 soldiers and destroyed 32 vehicles carrying military and relief supplies.

Michael Priestley, U.N. resident coordinator for relief assistance, told a meeting of aid donors in Addis Ababa that they should make immediate pledges of supplies.

Earlier, he told the Reuters news agency that the situation was so bad the United Nations would press ahead with food distribution in the north despite the risk of rebel attacks on relief convoys.

“There’s no other option. If there’s any interruption, people will be starving within a few weeks,” he said.

Berhanu Jembere, head of Ethiopia’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, told the meeting that his country now needs 1.05 million tons of food aid instead of the 950,000 tons estimated earlier. He said the new assessment was made after drought wiped out the harvest in large parts of the provinces of Eritrea, Tigre and Wollo.

Priestley described the new estimate as conservative, and some private relief agencies say Ethiopia will need 1.3 million tons.

Berhanu also appealed for aircraft to transport food to the north, suggesting trucks alone could not do the job.

In reporting the latest attack, the Eritean People’s Liberation Front said it occurred Wednesday 50 miles south of Asmara, the Eritrean capital. The statement was broadcast late Thursday on the rebel’s clandestine Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea radio and was monitored in Nairobi, Kenya.

The broadcast claimed the destroyed vehicles included two trucks and trailers “loaded with bombs and ammunition,” one truck carrying arms and soldiers, one Soviet-made military vehicle carrying a 33-millimeter weapon, three trucks carrying clothing, bombs, medicine and other items and 10 loaded fuel tankers.

It said 85 Ethiopian soldiers were killed, 40 were wounded and six were captured.