ROME, 24 September 2003 — Millions of Iraqis remain poor and hungry despite a better cereal harvest and the lifting of economic sanctions, the main United Nations food agencies said yesterday. Nearly half of the 26.3 million Iraqis are estimated to be poor and in need of assistance, according to a joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program.
About six out 10 Iraqis are unemployed and depend largely on public food rations. While starvation has been averted, chronic malnutrition persists among several million vulnerable people, including some 100 000 refugees and around 200 000 internally displaced people, the report said.
It said the effects of war, the sanctions and three years of severe drought from 1999 to 2001 had seriously eroded the Iraqis’ means of making a living. The situation is uneven across the country. That of mothers and children in central and southern Iraq is of particular concern, the report said, while in the northern governorates, acute malnutrition has been virtually eliminated.
The report forecast a cereal production of 4.12 million tons, 22 percent higher than estimated figure for 2002 because of favorable rains in the North and increased irrigation and use of chemicals. Nevertheless, the country will need to import 3.44 million tons of cereals from summer 2003 to summer 2004.
The report said the Iraqi war had not affected winter cereal crops but had disrupted the sowing of summer cereal, cotton and sunflower crops.
But the conflict had seriously affected Iraq’s capacity to produce the 600,000 tons of fertilizer it will need for cereals alone next year. Two fertilizer plants were reported out of action.
The UN agencies said water shortages and lack of sanitation remain serious problems, with Baghdad residents receiving a maximum of 70 liters a day and the inhabitants of other cities in the south even less.
The report said millions of Iraqis have no access to food other than through public food assistance, which is financed through the UN oil-for-food-program.
This assistance would have to be continued for some time because the agriculture will need a long time to be rehabilitated.
Nevertheless, said the report said, subsidies on food need to be gradually withdrawn. According to the World Food Program, about 3.5 million Iraqis — including malnourished children and nursing and expectant mothers - will need supplementary food at a cost of $51 million in 2004. The agency said the hardest hit included some 100,000 refugees and 200,000 displaced people.
Meanwhile, US Marines yesterday handed over to a Spanish-led force in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, scene of the country’s deadliest postwar bomb attack which killed more than 80 people including a top Shiite cleric. At a ceremony in bright sunshine on the outskirts of Najaf, US Marine Brig. Gen. John Kelly transferred authority to Brig. Gen. Alfredo Cardona of the Spanish Army.
