Nov 13th-Famine in Ethiopia
I found the following article on the Internet this week.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia--Ethiopia is facing a famine that could affect as many as 15 million people, the country's prime minister has warned.
Meles Zenawi called for urgent international aid to help avoid a catastrophe on a scale that woud dwarf the country's 1984-85 famine.
"The latest information we have is that the number of affected people could be as high as 15 million."
Christian Aid spokesman Andrew Pendleton said part of the problem was Ethiopia's commitment to repaying international debts.
"Ten percent plus of the Ethiopian government's revenues are spent on repaying international debts."
"This is an enormous amount of money to take away from a country that is crititically poor."
"In the long term, we have to take a look at why this keeps happening again and again. Now we have to respond to the immediate problem."
He told the BBC's Today programme: "The disaster we had in 84-85, the number involved was roughly one-third to one-half of the number of people involved now. If that was a nightmare, this will be too ghastly to contemplate."
Ethiopia needed huge amounts of food aid from international donors to avoid another famine.
"Even if we had the food available in the domestic market the government doesn't have the money to buy this surplus food for redistribution," Mr. Zenawi said.
"The current draught is unique because the short rains and the long rains have failed."
I asked "XXXX" through email (who was in Ethiopia) whether the Tigrai region had been affected terribly. Here is her response:
Yes, it is a problem. We got much less rain than needed and most of the farmers in this area experienced more than 40% loss in their harvests. People from the countryside are already drifting into the city in search of food or jobs that may help them provide more food for their families. The area is extremely dry and many farmers have also lost livestock. Just like the people here, the livestock is always living on the verge of starvation anyway. Just a slight set back puts them in danger of starvation. Please ask people to pray that relief will be available for the farmers here in the area.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia--Ethiopia is facing a famine that could affect as many as 15 million people, the country's prime minister has warned.
Meles Zenawi called for urgent international aid to help avoid a catastrophe on a scale that woud dwarf the country's 1984-85 famine.
"The latest information we have is that the number of affected people could be as high as 15 million."
Christian Aid spokesman Andrew Pendleton said part of the problem was Ethiopia's commitment to repaying international debts.
"Ten percent plus of the Ethiopian government's revenues are spent on repaying international debts."
"This is an enormous amount of money to take away from a country that is crititically poor."
"In the long term, we have to take a look at why this keeps happening again and again. Now we have to respond to the immediate problem."
He told the BBC's Today programme: "The disaster we had in 84-85, the number involved was roughly one-third to one-half of the number of people involved now. If that was a nightmare, this will be too ghastly to contemplate."
Ethiopia needed huge amounts of food aid from international donors to avoid another famine.
"Even if we had the food available in the domestic market the government doesn't have the money to buy this surplus food for redistribution," Mr. Zenawi said.
"The current draught is unique because the short rains and the long rains have failed."
I asked "XXXX" through email (who was in Ethiopia) whether the Tigrai region had been affected terribly. Here is her response:
Yes, it is a problem. We got much less rain than needed and most of the farmers in this area experienced more than 40% loss in their harvests. People from the countryside are already drifting into the city in search of food or jobs that may help them provide more food for their families. The area is extremely dry and many farmers have also lost livestock. Just like the people here, the livestock is always living on the verge of starvation anyway. Just a slight set back puts them in danger of starvation. Please ask people to pray that relief will be available for the farmers here in the area.
posted by Andrew Brown at 11:07 PM
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