Children at risk in spreading famine
Source: Agencies |
August 18, 2011, Thursday
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MALNOURISHED children are flocking to feeding centers in this forested corner of southern Ethiopia after the drought in east Africa extended into this normally fertile region.
While the famine in southern Somalia has grabbed headlines, southern Ethiopia is teetering on the brink of a food crisis. The Ethiopian government says 250,000 people need food aid amid what the United Nations says is the worst drought in 60 years. An aid organization and agricultural officials say the actual number who need emergency food aid in Ethiopia is 700,000.
The rains failed to fall as they usually do from February to the end of May. If they fail again in August, there will be no harvest.
People without food aid will "definitely be in trouble," World Food Program officer Yohannes Desta said.
About 1.3 million southerners received aid earlier this year from a government safety-net program that ended in June, said Desta.
Most of those people, whom Desta calls the "poorest of the poor," still require emergency relief, but instead must scrape by on the few crops they have left or through the goodwill of more fortunate family members or neighbors.
Tsegaye Tilahun, a corn farmer, said he is worried that September will bring him no yields at all. His previous crops this year ended up being cattle feed after heavy rains destroyed them. After a long dry spell, the plants could not absorb sudden persistent rain.
As a result of losing all his corn and coffee crops, his family went hungry. His daughter Eskael became dangerously underweight and he brought her to a government-run feeding center in Shebedino. He has relied on food handouts for months.
Nurses at the Shebedino center, one of many in the region, said they see about 50 severely malnourished children a month. A year ago an average of only six underfed children received treatment there each month.
This ethnically diverse region is overpopulated. Most families have six or more members, but farmers till only tiny, state-owned plots.
Farmers should diversify crops and have smaller families, Desta said.
The Ethiopian government, which is giving cash to the hungry as food reserves dwindle, prefers to resettle southern farmers to less densely populated and more fertile areas, mostly hundreds of kilometers away.
While the authorities claim the resettled farmers are better off, Desta questions the move.
"The problem is that people get resettled to places with a different culture and different agricultural practices," he said.
It is not clear how many people need food aid. The government says 250,000, local officials have asked the government to provide aid for at least 385,000 more, and the World Food Program says at least 700,000 require emergency relief.
Across the Horn of Africa, more than 12 million need food aid. Besides Somalia and Ethiopia, the drought has hit Kenya and Djibouti.
While the famine in southern Somalia has grabbed headlines, southern Ethiopia is teetering on the brink of a food crisis. The Ethiopian government says 250,000 people need food aid amid what the United Nations says is the worst drought in 60 years. An aid organization and agricultural officials say the actual number who need emergency food aid in Ethiopia is 700,000.
The rains failed to fall as they usually do from February to the end of May. If they fail again in August, there will be no harvest.
People without food aid will "definitely be in trouble," World Food Program officer Yohannes Desta said.
About 1.3 million southerners received aid earlier this year from a government safety-net program that ended in June, said Desta.
Most of those people, whom Desta calls the "poorest of the poor," still require emergency relief, but instead must scrape by on the few crops they have left or through the goodwill of more fortunate family members or neighbors.
Tsegaye Tilahun, a corn farmer, said he is worried that September will bring him no yields at all. His previous crops this year ended up being cattle feed after heavy rains destroyed them. After a long dry spell, the plants could not absorb sudden persistent rain.
As a result of losing all his corn and coffee crops, his family went hungry. His daughter Eskael became dangerously underweight and he brought her to a government-run feeding center in Shebedino. He has relied on food handouts for months.
Nurses at the Shebedino center, one of many in the region, said they see about 50 severely malnourished children a month. A year ago an average of only six underfed children received treatment there each month.
This ethnically diverse region is overpopulated. Most families have six or more members, but farmers till only tiny, state-owned plots.
Farmers should diversify crops and have smaller families, Desta said.
The Ethiopian government, which is giving cash to the hungry as food reserves dwindle, prefers to resettle southern farmers to less densely populated and more fertile areas, mostly hundreds of kilometers away.
While the authorities claim the resettled farmers are better off, Desta questions the move.
"The problem is that people get resettled to places with a different culture and different agricultural practices," he said.
It is not clear how many people need food aid. The government says 250,000, local officials have asked the government to provide aid for at least 385,000 more, and the World Food Program says at least 700,000 require emergency relief.
Across the Horn of Africa, more than 12 million need food aid. Besides Somalia and Ethiopia, the drought has hit Kenya and Djibouti.
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