Ethiopia hit by worst drought in decades

[Dubious]

The UN says about 8.2m people need emergency food aid in Ethiopia, nearly double the number six months ago.

12 Nov 2015 17:44 GMT | Ethiopia, Weather, Environment, Food

Conflicts, floods and failed rains caused by El Nino have sparked a sharp rise in the number of people going hungry in parts of east Africa, especially in drought-hit Ethiopia where about 8.2 million people are in need of emergency food aid, the UN has warned.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that due to El Nino, a global weather pattern that is expected to last until early 2016, "food insecurity is forecast to worsen over the coming months, especially in Ethiopia".

In many parts of Ethiopia, hundreds of thousands of farmers have fallen victim to the hot winds originating in the Pacific, causing the worst drought to hit the country and the region in decades.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Omar Mohammed, whose sorghum harvest has been ruined, said: "Every plant is dead. We have nothing now."

The farmer said that the well in his village dried up a few days ago because many people from surrounding areas had no choice but to use it.

Struggling to feed his family, he had to sell one of his three cows to buy enough food to give one meal a day to his children.

"We have nothing to eat now. We need food, water," Mohammed said, adding that he has received no help from aid agencies or the Ethiopian government.

Cattle herder Mohammed Fanni said 40 of his cows have died. He now has only five left.

"The cattle die first," he told Al Jazeera. "Now as the drought is getting worse goats and camels are beginning to die too."

The UN said about 8.2m people need emergency food aid in Ethiopia, nearly double the number compared to six months ago.

That figure could rise up to 15 million next year unless the international community stepped up with donations.

Approximately $100m have been given by international donors since October, but the UN said they could need at least five times that much in the next few months.


'Different situation'

The Ethiopian government said its emergency food programme is helping but it admitted it needs urgent assistance.

Aid agencies told Al Jazeera that malnutrition cases in the area were rising, but praised the government for what they said was its crisis management and fast reallocation of budget money.

A spokesman for the ministry of agriculture in the capital Addis Ababa told Al Jazeera this is a very different situation to the 1980s, when a drought compounded by political unrest developed into a famine and killed more than a million people.

"The government is trying hard to save the lives of its citizens and successfully reallocating money from its budget," Alemayehu Berhanu said.

"During the previous drought we lost a lot of lives and animals. Now, because of government action and progress, we, as a country, are more resilient."



Floods and conflicts

While some countries - including Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti - could see drier conditions, other nations, such as Kenya, Somalia and Uganda are at risk of floods.

More than 90,000 people in war-torn southern Somalia have already been hit by weeks of severe flooding, almost half of them forced from their homes, the UN said.

In South Sudan, where a nearly two-year long civil war rumbles on, about 40,000 people are already starving, with tens of thousands more on the brink of famine, the UN has said.

El Nino is triggered by a warming in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. It can cause unusually heavy rains in some parts of the world and drought elsewhere.

Ethiopia hit by worst drought in decades - Al Jazeera English

 

[Dubious]

Not "trending"! I guess Ethiopian lives dont matter

Thirty years of talking about famine in Ethiopia - why's nothing changed?
By Amelia ButterlyNewsbeat reporter

"There will not be famine of any sort, let alone anything remotely like the magnitude of that of 1984," says the Ethiopian Embassy in London.

For people aged over 30, that sentence, coming from Ethiopian officials, holds a special kind of meaning.

Because those people saw the TV reports in the 1980s showing thousands of children and adults starving to death.

Now, three decades on, the United Nations is warning that 15 million Ethiopians will need food aid by 2016.

This week's BBC report has been described as "sensational" by the Ethiopian Embassy.

In it, one man who lived through the famines of the 1980s says he expects the same thing will happen to Ethiopia again in the coming months.

First broadcast in October 1984, Michael Buerk's iconic news report showed the "biblical famine".

In the years before online videos, social media and internet news, his words still managed to reach around the world, with the footage being shown by more than 400 television stations worldwide.

One of the viewers was singer Bob Geldof.

Within weeks he'd gathered some of the biggest names in music, created Band Aid and recorded Do They Know It's Christmas?

The single raised millions. Then, in 1985, they put on Live Aid, a concert held in the US and the UK which was watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people.

In Do They Know It's Christmas? one lyric reads: "Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow."

The message is clear; drought caused crops to fail resulting in widespread famine.

But critics of the song say the causes of the crisis were more complex, with the policies of the government in Ethiopia partly to blame.

"Thousands were dying every week, the impact of drought compounded by the Marxist regime being in denial about the famine's severity and by the region being caught up in civil war," writes BBC correspondent Mike Wooldridge 30 years later.

The efforts of celebrities, charities, governments and the general public meant that it was only a matter of weeks after the Michael Buerk's BBC reports before aid started to reach the region.

Death rates still remained high for some time after the aid began arriving - more than a million were killed by the famine overall.

But the years since have still seen famine in that part of Africa.

Many people still rely on foreign food aid, illiteracy is a problem and the late 1990s saw conflict and thousands of deaths over a border dispute with Eritrea.

"The sensational news broadcast by BBC TV, regarding children dying on a daily basis, does not reflect the current broad reality on the ground and the full preparation that has gone into overcoming the problem," the Ethiopian Embassy said in its statement.

The Ethiopian government has set aside nearly £130m to deal with the crisis.

But the UN says another £330m is needed.

It says drought has already caused problems and a lack of rain has meant that in the worst affected areas there are 10% of the crops farmers would usually expect.

In one region, it says, two babies have been dying every day.

Thirty years of talking about famine in Ethiopia - why's nothing changed? - BBC Newsbeat

 

[war&peace]

We here in USA have the money for sending missions to the perfectly desolate Mars, S.E.T.I., Long Range Strategic Bomber (500 Billions) etc. But no money for poor people in Africa. We will send Melinda and Bill Gates with few bags of vaccine to Africa, although they are dying of hunger.

 

[DesiGuy]

We here in USA have the money for sending missions to the perfectly desolate Mars, S.E.T.I., Long Range Strategic Bomber (500 Billions) etc. But no money for poor people in Africa. We will send Melinda and Bill Gates with few bags of vaccine to Africa, although they are dying of hunger.

Why does USA have to take care of poor ppl in africa..or anywhere else in the world?

 

[war&peace]

Why does USA have to take care of poor ppl in africa..or anywhere else in the world?

Yes I agree with you ...USA has the only responsibility to destroy them.

 

[Nilgiri]

Immediate food aid is best handled by international NGOs like oxfam etc, rather than by USAID etc.

There are many cases where sustained bilateral country-to-country "food aid" damages local agricultural production and logistics in the long run, leaving the country even more vulnerable to such droughts and famines in the future. This is actually the main reason for Ethiopia suffering so badly again now.

500 million for immediate food aid is easily met by the UN and donor agencies. But a sustained long term program of domestic capacity to support the population needs to be implemented, without undercutting it with food aid year after year (which in most cases is to make supplier countries feel better about themselves rather than solidly addressing the real issues).

 

[DesiGuy]

Yes I agree with you ...USA has the only responsibility to destroy them.

I don't know what exactly you are agreeing with me...but I didn't say even close to what you are saying.

 

[C130]

We here in USA have the money for sending missions to the perfectly desolate Mars, S.E.T.I., Long Range Strategic Bomber (500 Billions) etc. But no money for poor people in Africa. We will send Melinda and Bill Gates with few bags of vaccine to Africa, although they are dying of hunger.

it's not the U.S job to feed the worlds poor. correct me if I'm wrong, but the U.S gives more aid to the world then any country, and most of it to countries that hate us.

The U.S. Gives the Most Aid to Countries That Hate It the Most - Vocativ

maybe it's time for China and India to pick up the slack they are bound to be the number 1 and 2 economics powers in the next 5-10 years and for a long long time thereafter.

meanwhile Ethiopia population continues to grow by about 20 million every 5 years you reap what you sow. the whole world is in for one GREAT DYING.

 

[SipahSalar]

I want to say that although droughts are natural, a famine is NEVER entirely natural.

 

[oproh]

America and western europe needs to feed this people since they are the richest and they can afford it, helping each other is what humans should do.

 

[haviZsultan]

I have to ask instead of feeding those bony little kids how these camera men can stand with them and do nothing. It is against humanity-it is against basic human thought which is to help the weak and poor in need...

 

[Dubious]

Immediate food aid is best handled by international NGOs like oxfam etc, rather than by USAID etc.

There are many cases where sustained bilateral country-to-country "food aid" damages local agricultural production and logistics in the long run, leaving the country even more vulnerable to such droughts and famines in the future. This is actually the main reason for Ethiopia suffering so badly again now.

500 million for immediate food aid is easily met by the UN and donor agencies. But a sustained long term program of domestic capacity to support the population needs to be implemented, without undercutting it with food aid year after year (which in most cases is to make supplier countries feel better about themselves rather than solidly addressing the real issues).

Did you read the article ....it has less to do wih other countries and more to do with weather changing patterns and drought!

it's not the U.S job to feed the worlds poor. correct me if I'm wrong, but the U.S gives more aid to the world then any country, and most of it to countries that hate us.

The U.S. Gives the Most Aid to Countries That Hate It the Most - Vocativ

maybe it's time for China and India to pick up the slack they are bound to be the number 1 and 2 economics powers in the next 5-10 years and for a long long time thereafter.

meanwhile Ethiopia population continues to grow by about 20 million every 5 years you reap what you sow. the whole world is in for one GREAT DYING.

May I remind you, we get aid from USA but we have to either pay it back or agree to American terms of shaping our lives...some are good others are weird...

And there is little checks and balances! I read a recent report on the agriculture and education sector where aid was given but no checks and balance....America gives a large chunk coz of multiple reasons

Foreign aid reaches record high | Global development | The Guardian
Foreign aid for development in poorer countries hit a record high last year, with large spending increases recorded by the UK, Iceland, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday show official development assistance (ODA) grew by 6.1% in 2013 to $134.8bn (£80.3bn) after falling for two years in a row in as donors grappled with austerity measures and increasingly divided public opinion in many countries.

Seventeen countries in the OECD's development assistance committee (DAC) increased their aid spending last year, with huge jumps recorded by some donors. The UK's spending grew by 27.8% to hit for the first time the international target to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) as aid.

Iceland's aid spending also rose by more than 27% in 2013, and Japan's by 36.6%. Norwegian and Italian aid rose by more than 10%. Other countries, not part of the OECD-DAC group, also recorded significant spending increases. Estonia, Russia and Turkey each reported rises of more than 20%.

Aid from the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, soared by 375.5%, largely because of exceptional support extended to Egypt. In 2013 it spent 1.25% of its GNI as aid – more than any OECD-DAC donor. At the same time, aid spending fell in almost a dozen countries, with the biggest decreases in Canada (-11.4%), France (-9.8%) and Portugal (-20.4%).

The OECD also warned that the share of aid going to some of the world's least developed countries was falling, despite the overall increase in spending. In 2013, aid to Africa fell by 5.6% in 2013, to $28.9bn.

The OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said: "It is heartening to see governments increasing their development aid budgets again, despite the financial constraints they are currently facing. However, assistance to some of the neediest countries continues to fall, which is a serious concern."

The Paris-based forum also noted that more donors were giving aid in forms other than grants, with countries counting a growing amount of equity investments and loans – which developing countries must pay back – as ODA. In 2013, grants grew by only 3.5% while other forms of spending rose by 33%.

A survey of donors' spending plans suggests aid levels could rise again in 2014 and stabilise thereafter. However, the share of aid going to the countries most in need, including in sub-Saharan Africa, will decrease even further.

The survey suggests donors will focus spending on middle-income countries including Brazil, China, Chile, Mexico, India and Pakistan. Aid to these countries will probably be in the form of loans, it says.

Aid from rich countries grew steadily from 1997 to 2010, before falling in 2011 and 2012. The US remained the largest aid donor in 2013, spending $31.5bn. Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden continued to exceed the 0.7% target. The Netherlands fell below 0.7% for the first time since 1974.

Seamus Jeffreson, director of Concord, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs, welcomed 2013's rise in spending, but warned that the effect of previous aid cuts was still being felt in poor countries. "Aid austerity is starting to reverse across Europe, despite two years of substantial cuts that are still felt by some of the world's poorest," he said. "Many development projects have been stopped or abandoned as a consequence."

The OECD-DAC defines and polices what spending its members can count as aid. The current ODA definition, set in 1969, requires donors count only spending that has the economic development of poorer countries as its primary objective. In practice, however, the rules have allowed countries to count a wide range of activities.

Guardian analysis in February revealed that millions of pounds of UK aid money is spent in Britain. In 2012, almost £12m went on such projects as global citizenship lessons in Scottish schools, military and security training for officials from African countries at the UK's Defence Academy, and a "study visit" to the UK for North Korean officials.

The rules on what spending donors are allowed to count as ODA are potentially up for revision this year, before the 2015 deadline for the millennium development goals. Some want to see the definition tightened so that only money that reaches developing countries can count. But some donor governments hope to see the definition expanded so they can report more loans and other financial instruments, such as guarantees, as aid.

On Monday, the Daily Mail reported that some UK ministers were backing plans to allow billions of pounds in military spending to count towards Britain's total aid spending.



So it literally isnt money going out of your country but what you spend and how! Now America could be speinding on military in Africa for its own people and counting it as aid....very little check and balance is done mind you! To Pakistan and such countries, we get loans which we have to pay back so that is misuse of the word "aid"

 

[Manindra]

I have to ask instead of feeding those bony little kids how these camera men can stand with them and do nothing. It is against humanity-it is against basic human thought which is to help the weak and poor in need...

This is historical image in which a famine hit little girl taking her last breath & a Vulture is waiting for her to die.
The photographer who clicked this picture later made suicide due to critics likes you who said he shoud saved her (she can't be saved at that stage) instead of taking picture.
But this picture stormed the whole world to take attention on Africa which saved million of Kids.
If photographer tried to save girl (which he could not) then million of more African kids died without knowing anyone.

These famine are that time when China & India is taking large farm land in Africa ?

 

[Nilgiri]

Did you read the article ....it has less to do wih other countries and more to do with weather changing patterns and drought!

I'm talking about how the problems can be made worse by constant long term food aid....not that they were the only underlying cause to begin with.

 

[Dubious]

I'm talking about how the problems can be made worse by constant long term food aid....not that they were the only underlying cause to begin with.

Fair enough!