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TechnoratiEthiopia Facing World's 'Most Urgent' Food Crisis
ADDIS ABABA - The most pressing food crisis in the world at present is in Ethiopia, according to John Holmes, the United Nations' under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.
![[A malnourished boy is portrayed at a feeding centre in Damota Pulassa, southern Ethiopia. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has urged Ethiopia to grant aid groups access to conflict zones in the southern Ogaden region where the army is battling a rebel group. (AFP/File/Jose Cendon)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/ethiopia.jpg "ethiopia.jpg")
Holmes is on a three-day visit to Ethiopia to witness the efforts by the Ethiopian government, UN agencies, and international aid organizations to attend to the needs of more than 10 million people facing food shortages in the Horn of Africa country.
"In terms of the urgency of the food crisis and in terms of the immediate risk of children dying, I don't think there's another crisis like this one," Holmes said during a flight to the southern epicenter of Ethiopia's crisis.
Ethiopian farmers and livestock herders are being hit with both a drought and skyrocketing food prices; in some areas, food prices have quintupled in just a year. At the same time, the global spike in food and fuel prices has hampered relief efforts by cutting the purchasing power of the World Food Program in half. With scarce resources to attend to the emergency in Ethiopia, families rescued from hunger often fall back into crisis.
On the first day of his trip to Ethiopia, Holmes visited a feeding center where dozens of women waited to have their children weighed -- a chance for free life-saving rations of a nutrient rich peanut paste, but only for those sick enough. Many return week after week. In all, the United Nations estimates that 75,000 children are at risk of starving to death in Ethiopia.
Though Ethiopia has posted double-digit economic growth over the last five years, most of its farmers remain dependant on rainfall. The country's pastoralists, who migrate with their animals to find verdant pasture, are also at the mercy of weather. In some parts of the country, three consecutive rainy seasons have failed.
Earlier in the day, one farmer, standing in a field of stunted maize, told Holmes he had planted seeds four times this year in hope of rain. Each time, the rains never came.
Until they do, international donors will have to provide support, said Holmes. Yet Ethiopia is still asking countries like the United States and United Kingdom for an extra $140 million, and that figure is likely to rise this month when the government releases revised estimates of its humanitarian needs.
"One of the problems is that there are these problems arising all over the world," Holmes said. "Donors' pockets are not bottomless and therefore the resources are more limited than they would be in other circumstances."
The global rise in food prices may force more than 100 million people back into extreme poverty worldwide, according to reports by the World Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
13 Comments so far
Show AllI noticed no one on this has asked “what can I do?” That is what is wrong with the world. You look to blame the government, the rich, the military, capitalism…I’ve been to Ethiopia and I can tell you a couple of things. First, we do take care of our poor and what we consider poor verses the poverty there are not even remotely close. Our poor get free or subsidized housing, education, and medical care. Second we send BILLIONS of dollars in aid every year. But so long as people think it is everyone else’s fault and someone else’s responsibility to help, nothing will ever change. I loved Ethiopia and the beautiful people there and I am grieved to know that pictures of people starving to death do nothing more than inspire debates over peanut butter paste.
Ethiopia has had an especially hard time with starvation. I've had a picture on my wall of a Mother & child from the '80s, starving. The Mother looks (looked) resigned but the child appeared angry. Her life was cut so short; they were Christian.
And now again. We can't save everybody, of course, but that should not influence our attempt to save who and what we can. We should leave the ends, the outcomes, to be what they will be. And do our best with what we have in our limited power. This includes population controls.
My heart is breaking for all of the people affected by this crisis. I wonder why the religion of the people who are starving is important to you? I doubt it would be important to Jesus. And no, we can't save everybody, but we can certainly try.
I don't think those poor folks have caught a break since the Italians invaded during WW2. Surely there is a good answer to all this.
How much food, housing, education, healthcare, contraceptives and other necessities could they get for the cost of one week of our Iraq occupation?
A bunch. But then we return to the original question. Shouldn't that money be spent on our own poor first? Should we be undertaking the care of someone in or from another country till we have taken care of our own citizens.
Frankl I wish I were smarter and this question were easy like most military ones are or questions about war.
Sorry Thomas, sending troops to interfere in somebody else's civil war is not the same thing as feeding a hungry kid.
Everything else you say is true enough, and efforts to help may amount to no more than a token but it is that token effort that makes us human. Besides, had this country spent a fraction of the money and creativity on eradicating poverty as on munitions and expensive toys, poverty would not exist.
The look in that kid's eyes accuses every adult on this planet who will eat out this weekend.
Sorry Thomas, sending troops to interfere in somebody else's civil war is not the same thing as feeding a hungry kid.
Point taken and agreed. Though I'm sure we can never eradicate poverty, surely we can make a dent in it.
Western capitalists are mostly responsible for Ethiopia famine. Ethiopia is courageously embracing the challenge of low-intensity low-energy food production, e.g. without irrigation, and facing the huge risks head on, thereby setting an amazing example for the entire world, with great rewards to follow for all the people and great relief for the planet. Ethiopia's approach naturally depends on treaties so that when drought hits, nearby regions dispense surplus.
Ethiopia's approach depends on selections of drought tolerant food-bearing trees and bushes, plus other permaculture methods. Unfortunately, these methods have been suppressed by western capitalists, thus making the capitalists largely responsible for world famines, particularly over the past fifty years.
When you vote for establishment candidates in the US elections, you are voting to continue a doomed enterprise, capitalist destruction of local food security worldwide. The third party progressive platform includes land, water and food rights for all people.
Is it our responsibility to feed Ethopia? Or any other country? And no, that nutrient rich peanut paste sounds awful. Especially for children.
Am I my brother's keeper? -- is that what you mean?
Although that said I can remember seeing pictures such as this all my life (and I'm no longer young), so I don't know that the current high food prices are entirely to blame. Two things that would definitely help are education (including birth control), and to stop the sale of arms. Obviously these are longer term solutions, but if you don't start sometime you'll never get there.
Yes, something like that. Everyone keeps saying stay out of other peoples business, bring our troops home, etc.
Then something like this happens and people start yelling for us to do something. Its a bit contradictory. If we send food or money, it mostly ends up in the local (fill in the blank)'s pocket, if we send aid workers to provide it and they are shot at or killed then people say where were our troops, why didn't you protect them.....I'm sure you can extrapolate.
Birth contol would surely help, but how do you stop arms sales? I doubt the Russians or Chinese will listen to us. They make far to much money from it.
Population control is the real solution I believe. I can't stand to think of those kids going without and yet I know we simply can't help the whole world.
Mmm mmm, that nutrient rich peanut paste does sound delish, no? Hey, maybe if the U.S. didn't A.) spend billions/trillions attacking the Middle east, and B.) taxed the superwealthy 'til they had merely silver-plated bidets?