… as the Meles dictatorship claims that the media is fabricating the food shortage, and instead is talking about growing plants for biofuels.
By Gavin Hewitt, BBC News
It is a strange and unsettling ride west from the Ethiopian town of Shashamene. The fields are vibrant green. There is water in the creeks. The soil is a deep rich burgundy. However, the people here speak of a “green drought”. It is the time when the land is full of new shoots but there is no food. It happens because the last rains failed and few crops were planted. You can sense the desperation when you arrive in a village.
A crowd gathers quickly. Some hold up their children. They want us to see the distended stomachs which are one sign of hunger.
What we have seen in the villages is not famine but it is a crisis – some say tens of thousands of children are at risk
Agencies fear prices and drought
The parents hope that, by seeing, we will take their children to a treatment centre.
This happened in the village of Odo. A local priest had visited last week and had taken the most severely malnourished children for emergency care.
But others had been left behind, including a 12-year-old with shrunken limbs who suffered from malaria.
Walking for hours
It is hard to know the scale of this. For several hours this morning women walked into the tiny village of Garagoto.
Ethiopian child
Parents showed children’s distended stomachs to appeal for help
Most had young children slung on their backs.
Some were carried in bundles of cloth. All were sick. Some had the bloated faces of the severely malnourished. Others were covered in flies.
One of them, eight-year-old Tareking, was starving. His eyes sunken, his head swollen.
His mother had walked for several hours to bring him to a treatment centre. We all questioned whether it was too late for Tareking.
Another mother called Muner said she had walked for four hours to get help for her son Sparku.
“I was so tired, she said, and it was very difficult getting here. The cattle are dying and there is hunger.”
Challenge ahead
For a time, Ethiopia was associated with famine. The country has come a long way since then.
What we have seen in the villages is not famine – but it is a crisis.
Aid work in Ethiopia
Aid workers have helped hundreds of ill children
Some say tens of thousands of children are at risk. I can believe that.
We travelled through five or six villages. In every one were vulnerable children who will not survive until the next harvest without emergency food aid.
One aid agency has said there is not currently enough food in the country to meet this crisis.
I met Daniel Hadgu, who works for the International Medical Corps. He was clear that, without help, 50% of the most needy children would die.
We went to an emergency centre in the village of Eddu that was run by the Missionaries of Charity.
They have already cared for more than 400 of the most seriously ill children.
The vast majority survive but a few have died. Some are so weak and vulnerable that the slightest setback can be fatal.
And here lies the challenge: what will become of so many poor, frail children in the months ahead before the next harvest in early autumn.
9 thoughts on “Desperation as Ethiopia’s hunger grows (BBC)”
to Weyane, the picture that a normal human being see is “Not Ethiopian”. It is a manufactured picture from, say Eritrea or the Sudan or Somalia or, heck how about even from Arizona. Do these people care how they lie? Weyane stands for Weshetam endemic yeferenjoch ashker non ethiopian.
every major web site i visit i see a news how our poor little angeles are dying of hunger. i do not now what we are waiting, the woyanes are refusing to accept there is a problem in the country, and keep giving us the fake economic growth that does not make sense. the question is, how we as ethiopians are prepared to help this young generation? what can we do to make it a little better to the people. forget about these monsters, but let us join together and let us be the answer to their cry not some foreign country.
Today I visited BBC and Reuters all are dealing with starvation in Ethiopia.What the heck is going on, folks?Please! let us organize and help our kids,sisters and brothers.I can’t stand looking at the photo on BBC and Reuters,it really sucks.Please guys at least check out your relatives there in our homeland.
I see the same report from CNN too. What a shame! it seems we are born to starve.
Elias is doing his part, and lets’s do something GOBEZ!
The sad thing about all this is woyane is still in denial. The minister of propaganda accuse the international community for reporting the hunger and famine. Will the day come when woyane admits guilt are forced to admit guilt?
I hope the day is fast approaching for justice.
Mereregn and Yager lij,
if you are truly want to help, let us organize something and raise money, clothing…..or whatever is needed to ease the situation on those kids. remember there will be soccer games in DC soon so it will be perfect to organize fund raising. what do you guys think? remember God and we are the only answer for our problems.
Folks,
The first news in yesterday’s BBC report was about the famine in our beloved country. It is heart breaking. In my opinion thugs and bandits have never brought peace and prosperity. At the moment, the main obstacle to food sufficiency in our country is none other than the Woyane bandits. The animals do know how to run their own life leave alone leading a great nation like Ethiopia. The so-called leaders are third and fifth grade dropouts. Some of them left third grade after watching page 8 of the science book, which depicts a picture of a snake. Others like Berket Simon left the fifth grade after requesting their teacher that they would be back after using the bathroom and never returned to the classroom.
The animals must go in order to have peace and prosperity in our beloved nation. They do not care about our people. They have enough money to live comfortably, which they have stolen from poor farmers who have faced the hunger. Whatever minor solution we come up with is not going to solve our problems. The only solution is to elect a democratic government that is accountable to the people. Parasites like woayne will never solve our problem nor have the know to do so.
While I am heart broken to see my people suffer like this, I am also astounded by the stupidity and indifference of the media and everyone involved for not asking the obvious question. Why is Ethiopia starving generation after generation? Of course they don’t care.
A brutal dictatorship owns the land to force the subjects obidient to its rules. How can they make better use of it if they don’t own the property they depend on for every aspect of their existence. Can you imagine the development of the west without ownership? Can you imaging capitalism with out having the right to own, sell, exchange, transfer of wealth in the west?
How is it possible to achieve food security with out mass food production? And how are capitalists going to go into agriculture if they are not able to buy and sell land?
And it all comes to the question of how woyane is going to stay in power if it allows Ethiopians to own their land, which leads us to the conclusion that woyane dictatorship uses starvation of the masses to stay in power.
Good youtube videos and article too :D