UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

Record numbers of children are ending up on the streets of Ethiopia, the ministry of labour and social affairs revealed on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of youngsters - some as young as four - are being forced to eke out a squalid and often dangerous existence on the streets. According to the ministry, numbers in Ethiopia have reached alarming proportions, with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 street children.

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) - which works with the government on the problem - estimates there are some 50,000 to 60,000 street kids in the capital alone. "UNICEF recognises that this is a very serious problem," its spokeswoman, Angela Walker, told IRIN. "We are working with the government to try and alleviate the difficulties that street children are suffering, by providing shelter, school uniforms and other services."

She said street children faced serious dangers and were often exploited. "Street children are subject to multiple danger," Walker said. "They face abuse, exposure to prostitution and HIV/AIDS."

The ministry believes that a further 500,000 children are at high risk of ending up on the streets. The problem is made worse by the AIDS pandemic sweeping Africa. Recent statistics from the ministry of health showed there were up to one million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.

Street children often fall into two categories - children of the street and children on the street. The former spend their entire lives on the streets, while the latter work on the street and sleep at home. Some 15,000 children in Addis Ababa are believed to children "of" the street, working 12 to 14 hours a day before going home. Around 25 percent are girls.

UNICEF started a street children programme in 1998 in six towns across Ethiopia. It now works in 14 towns and has spent US $1 million since the start of the programme. UNICEF provides health education, vaccination programmes and education. So far, some 1,800 children have been enrolled in school.

Catherine Fitzgibbon, head of GOAL Ethiopia - one of the leading non-governmental organisations dealing with street children - said the scale of the problem is immense. GOAL argues that greater coordination between agencies working with street children would prevent more falling through the net.

"If organisations could really work together their impact would be much greater," she said. "We are trying to adopt this approach here in Addis Ababa, in conjunction with the Bureau of Labour and Social Affairs, but obviously the numbers are now so large it is a much more complex task."

Capt Temesgen Tezazu, Head of the Child Care Unit at Addis Ababa Police Commission, confirmed that more and more children are being abandoned - and many of them die.

"It is a problem," he told IRIN. "The numbers of children we find varies, but the numbers have been increasing overall. There was a slight drop last year, but overall the trend is increasing."

He said children were being abandoned for various social and economic reasons. "Often it is because it is an unlawful marriage, or the mother couldn't afford to raise the children because she is very poor," he said. "Some of the mothers may have been house servants who were raped and got pregnant. After they deliver, they can't afford to look after their children properly."

Temesgen added that anyone who abandons a child could be sentenced to three years in jail. He said when police found the children they were taken to hospitals for a checkup, and then they are taken to orphanages where they are looked after until the parents are found.