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Ethiopia’s top disaster response official, Simon Mechale, insists that the food situation is “under control” and will be resolved within four months. But in the countryside, there are signs that drought has taken a more serious toll.
At a recent food distribution in a village some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, more than 4,000 people showed up for free wheat and cooking oil, but only 1,300 rations were available.
Harried health workers picked through the impatient crowd, sorting out the sickest children. Frantic mothers proffered their withered infants, hoping the children’s poor state would earn some food for the family.
Ayelech Daka said her 6-year-old son, Tariken Lakamu, has been living on one meal a day for the past three months.
“He was very fat three months ago,” said his mother, Ayelech said. “He was normal.”
Now, he’s a pile of bones and skin; he vomits just seconds after taking a bite of a biscuit offered by an aid worker.
“I’m weak,” the child said. “I feel sick. I don’t get any food.”
Another mother, Ukume Dubancho, rocked a listless infant, trying to squeeze out drops of breast milk for her children, ages 4 months and 4 years, both of whom show signs of severe malnutrition.
“I am not able to walk, even,” Ukume said. “I walk for one kilometer and I have to rest.”
Villagers said they can’t afford the food on the market. The few mature ears of corn in the market were selling for about 11 cents per ear. Last year, when the rains were good, that money would buy six or seven ears of corn.
Aid agencies are issuing desperate appeals for donor funding, saying emergency intervention is not enough. Ethiopia receives more food aid than nearly every other country in the world, most of it from the United States, which has provided $300 million in emergency assistance to relief agencies in the past year.
But despite the international help, the country is again facing hunger on a mass scale. Part of the reason, according to John Holmes, the top U.N. humanitarian official, is the country’s climate, chronic drought and the large population — some 78 million people. He said the U.N. was hoping to boost the number of people it helps here.
“The World Food Program feeds some 8 million people already, together with the others in Ethiopia,” he said. “But we may need to increase that, because of drought.”
[...] Everyone is starving in Ethiopia Part of the reason, according to John Holmes, the top UN humanitarian official, is the country’s climate, chronic drought and the large population — some 78 million people. He said the UN was hoping to boost the number of people it … [...]
[...] “This is how bad the situation is” says an observer. It gives a whole new another meaning to “mouth-watering”. The people in Ethiopia wish they could eat a mouth watering delicious food but they are forced to mouth water to clean their babies because of famine and lack of clean water. [...]