|
By David Brough
Reuters
"I am strongly convinced, after visiting the Ethiopian
countryside and seeing literally thousands of acutely malnourished children,
that the international community must move immediately to provide the large
quantities of food and non-food emergency assistance that will be necessary
to prevent famine in Ethiopia again this year."
Hall's remarks contrasted sharply with an interview he gave to Reuters in
November in which he said Ethiopia was unlikely to be facing a crisis on the
scale of the 1984 famine that killed nearly one million Ethiopians.
According to Hall's report, 11.3 million victims of drought will require
about 1.4 million tonnes of food aid in 2003, and an additional three million
people will need to be closely monitored.
"With 20 percent of Ethiopia's population at risk, unless deftly handled,
2003 could well become a crisis of similar magnitude to the catastrophe of
1984," Hall said.
"Given the depth and wide geographic spread of the hunger, greater leadership
and involvement of the United Nations at the country level is required," he
added. "And donors need to be seized with a heightened sense of urgency."
The scenes at feeding sites were ones of despair and tragedy, Hall said.
"Mothers had nothing to offer their hungry children," he said. "Children who
should have been playing had no energy to even move. Senior citizens looked
decades older than they actually were."
Ethiopia is once again faced with the threat of famine, Hall said.
"It is even worse than I expected," he said. "There is a tremendous amount of
malnutrition, and I am numbed by the sheer numbers of acutely malnourished
children."
The famine of 1984-85 was followed by serious food shortages in 1992, 1994,
2000 and 2002. Of the country's 67.2 million people, almost half -- 28
million -- live in deep and long-term poverty, and are vulnerable to drought,
acute malnutrition and even starvation, Hall said.
|
|
Call for accountable government to avoid food
crises (cont.)
USAID
Natsios, who visited Ethiopia
last month, said without economic and political changes, the country would
always face “chronic hunger".
“While the Ethiopian government has taken a leadership role in responding to
the famine, it has been reluctant until very recently to embrace the policies
that will stimulate growth and investment in its agricultural sector to avoid
future famines,” Natsios said.
He urged the international community to invest more on “recovery and
prevention” and boost funding in the agricultural sector to avoid food crises
in the country.
“At the same time unless the government of Ethiopia embraces accountable and
open governance and enacts market and trade reforms necessary to increase the
capacity of local producers, Ethiopia will remain in a chronic state of
hunger,” he added.
He said the country also faces major logistical problems in tackling the food
emergency, as it has no seaports and limited trucks to deliver food.
Natsios said the crisis in Ethiopia was “supply driven” – in that the country
does not produce enough food aid and lacks the cash to fill the gap. Food
aid, he added, was clearly just a short-term solution and that would not
solve the problem.
|
.