By TesfaNews,
During his exclusive interview with the VOA, the Eritrean President, who is in New York attending the 66th UN General Assembly, disclosed that Eritrea will soon send food aid to reach the hungry and most affected people of Somalia.
“We are willing to provide a ‘modest amount of food’ to international aid agencies to help feed hunger affected Somalis,” said President Afwerki.
The United Nations said nearly 13 million people are at risk of starvation in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia after being affected by the worst drought in six decades.
Despite the widespread but largely politically motivated allegations about the existence of “famine” in Eritrea, President Afwerki utterly dismissed that as ‘baseless’. He rather ascertain that there exist no food shortages in the country today, nor did it existed yesterday or would exist tomorrow let alone famine or drought thanks to the putting in place of agricultural infrastructure facilities and expansion of food security activities nationwide.
Eritrea announced it has recorded a bumper harvest of around 420,654 tons from last year with real chances of repeating another bumper harvest this year.
As part of its culture of extending a helping hand to brotherly nations in their time of need, Eritrea in recent past has donated US$ 50,000 to Japan in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, while Eritreans living in Kenya has also donated a substantial amount of money to help Kenyans suffering from drought by initiating a campaign called Eritreans-for-Kenya.
Therefore, extending a helping hand, however small it may look, to the brotherly people of Somali at their time of need, will be no different, in fact gratifying.
