The United Nations has warned that nearly two thirds of the population of Eritrea, 2.3 million people, will need food aid this year, news reports said Wednesday. The tiny Horn of Africa country is facing severe food shortages in 2005, following several successive draughts in the main grain-producing areas of the country. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Eritrea would need 262,000 tones of food aid this year to supplement the inadequate harvests. Earlier in the week, the U.N. envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea, Lloyd Axworthy, said millions of people remain in poverty as a result of the border war, which has been followed by a five-year stalemate. He said both countries were missing vital trade and social opportunities that would lift millions out of poverty.
