EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.N. and international media are not accurately reporting about the real causes for the food shortage in Ethiopia. The main problem is mismanagement of resources. Just to mention two examples: 1) Massive quantities of food bought at below market prices is being stored in warehouses through out the Tigray region, the base of the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne), for use by supporters of the regime, while other regions, particularly the south, are suffering. 2) The money that is used to finance the expensive and senseless war in Somalia could have been used to help farmers in drought affected areas to use irrigation. Ethiopia is blessed with numerous rivers. Farmers do not have to rely on rain alone. Egypt’s only source of water to grow crops, for example, is the river that is originating in Ethiopia — not rain. So why are we not hearing about famine in Egypt caused by lack of rain? Solution: Better government.
(BBC) The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF is warning that six million Ethiopian children are at risk of acute malnutrition because of a lack of seasonal rain.
Already, more than 60,000 children in just two of Ethiopia’s regions are in the most severe condition, requiring immediate specialist feeding to survive.
The situation across the rest of the country is still being assessed.
Aid agencies have fresh pictures showing listless children with distended stomachs – the telltale signs of acute malnutrition.
“In just one clinic, we have more than 250 children, who will only survive with immediate treatment,” says David Noguera, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres emergency unit.
Dr Noguera says the situation is absolutely alarming and a massive effort is needed to turn it around.
11 thoughts on “6 millions of Ethiopian children face starvation”
Not even during the times of the derg where the country was besieged by wars these pests created, this kind of catastrophe happened.
Ethiopians can bring change to Ethiopia only when they learn to make friend of their AK47. Whether they use it or not is not my concern.
Last week UN announced to cut food Aids to Mainly countries including in Africa. That means those making a lavish life in the name of distributing those food aids must leave from the country they are living. As we know their job is looking like making possible in the long run that African couldn’t feed itself and they would be wanted forever.
That is why they are looking a disgrace reasons and multiplying it with thousands in order to make the world believe that the situation is bad to get the fund that only 25% reaches to its goal. The rest huuummmm…. Ask them.
Can you imagine when they say 6 million children? To them when it comes about Africa it doesn’t matter it is 6000 or 6 million especially when it is about bad things. Who cares about black children?
As we know Ethiopia is the prime target to these shameless so called humanitarians that are saying for years they are helping but no one is helped and became self sufficient instead it seems they are helping to worsen the situation.
Remember
In the name of Hungry Ethiopians from Tigry (1984), they organised a worldwide concert to sing and dance in the name of helping hungry people. Their purpose was to humiliate Ethiopia, which was/is and will be the symbol of Africa using world known singers. Do you how much money was collected and how much reached to its goal? Some says only 10 million. But other countries like Sudan was getting at the time more than 1.5 billion dollar a year as a humanitarian assistance without humiliating the nation. Egypt is getting more than 2 billion US dollar only from US every year? How much gets Ethiopia back then and now and for what purpose?
Egypt gets 97% its total water consumption from the Nile. 86-95%(based on the season) of Nile water in Egypt comes from Ethiopia. This is only the Ethiopian water from one side of the country. Omo goes to Kenya. Wabishebele goes to Somalia. Awash goes to the Afar desert. Only Abay has 1200 gebary rivers (400 are big and permanent rivers). The amount of fresh water Lake Tana has is more than the total fresh water the whole of England has. How many lakes Ethiopia does have? 100 or more?
Ethiopia has the second highest rain fall in Africa After Democratic Congo. Yet we don’t here countries like Egypt are hungry because of draught. But we do about Ethiopia time after time. By who? Of course by so called international humanitarian organizations. If really they are doing the right thing, they would assist the right way such as long term vision investment in agriculture and protecting the market in order the poor farmer could compete among themselves. Instead what they do. They bring foreign aids from rich country and destroying the market that could lead to big disasters such as small scale and primitive farmers.
It is shame, when we Ethiopians are accepting this kind of humiliation time after time while we know the problem in our country is not because of rain. It is not our beautiful country fault. Our country is created containing 80% all African high ground and with many advantage including having lots of rain, good weather in all season and with many other useful elements.
Wake up and take your matter in your hand.
What about the so called double digits Weyane outlet Aiga forum mantra.I do not know whether the Tigrian Junta are indeed humans or not.They are playing double digit growth on the double digit death of Ethiopian Children.You tigrians who are blindly supporting the regime SPEAK UP.SPEAK UP FOR THE ENOCENTS ETHIOPIAN CHILDREN.
Speak up for the injustice of the children.This is not about politics or opposition as you seem to beleive.Where is the outcry?
All the international aid organizations, african union and over a 100 foreign embassies are housed in ethiopian capital and yet ethiopia is one of the poorest nations on the planet. there are over 100 lakes in ethiopia, yet we hear some useless people/oppositions crying about ‘lost ports’ that they need had to begin with.if the so called food aids help, ethiopians would be millioners by now. But all the aids and other assistances ethiopia recieved, it was all used to massacre Eritreans during the 30 yrs of war and to oppress the other ethiopians.
ethiopia can grow enough food not just to sustain itself but to feed the whole of africa. The problem is there are too many uneducated, racist, tribalist and regionalist elites whom by the way have controlled ethiopian politics for the last 100 yrs.funny enough, ethiopian pride themselves of being solomon decendents and having a 2000 yrs of history, yet they can’t pull their shit togthere. Instead they are happy being puppet for superpowers and cause misery, corruption and terror in our region.
The good thing is though there are hopeful nations such as Eritrea emerging in the region and hopefully ethiopian youngsters take a good lesson. Eritrea is the only african nation to refuse aid and yet no single report of starvation despite the superpowers effort to isolate it from all regional and internations trade organizations. i’m glad our defense forces are getting busy building roads, dams, schools and clinics instead of shooting innocent children in somalia.
The fact of the matter is that the starving children don’t know politics. What we should do is raise some money and send it directly to the needy people. Elias I humbly suggest that this is the time for you to take the initative and raise fund for the starving chidren.
Thank you
Please go and look at all the government controlled websites and news outlets, not even a word on the horror that has befallen our people. Not even a recognition let alone to mobilise all our resources to help the people who are going through this silent holocaust (manmade or otherwise). A horror story of epic proportion being dealt with same old politically cold and calculated response, as the second coming of teh Derge. A tyrannical government obsessed for its own survival than the millions and millions off its subjects that are suffering one of the greatest tragedies that had befallen mankind.
Nothing can be worst than this. We all should be ashamed of ourselves… SAD!
IMF said the weyane’s regime has recorded economic growth. why are 6m ethiopia’s children are starving?
The irony is that just two weeks ago, I read on the news that Ethiopia is heading to join the countries with middle income (Korea Czech, Botswana, etc.) in about ten years.
Do these people really know the meaning of ‘yilugnta’? It reminds me of Prof. Mesfin’s ‘mafer diro kere’. Well said.
Any way, it is good on our side if we can find a way to do something to save the lives of these children. Again I know that it is a problem, there is a good chance that we end up pouring our hard earned money into the coffers of a tribal war lord. Financing the wars the tribalist junta instigated is also an inexcusable crime. I don’t know what to do…
Let’s think about it.
Predicting what tomorrow may bring – rain or draught, food or hunger – to Ethiopia is almost impossible; however, how many children will die of hunger and disease is predictable because of certain signs on each hungry child’s face that make the prediction real. These signs are the bulging stomach, the almost fleshless bones, the fly-covered face, the subdued voice, and the slow movement of the dying child.
After one looks at these bonny children, he can easily tell whether the children will survive or die. The whole point here is not the survival of the children who are near to death but to prevent the other millions of children from becoming sick and hungry.
To prevent children from dying of hunger and disease is the primary duty of a reasonable leader of a country. Since Ethiopia does not have such a responsible leader with a well-thought out plan to prevent the Ethiopian children from dying of hunger and disease, its children will continue to die in a great number. Right now, in Ethiopia, killing innocent people is the priority of the present regime rather than saving the lives of six million Ethiopian children.
Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi) must “put his house in order” before he asks the world for extra donation or alms; putting one’s own house in order means, Meles must go extra miles to buy enough food for the Ethiopian children by selling some military equipments in the black market. He must reduce the police force and encourage the neighborhood to protect or guard its own community from hooligans. He should abolish completely or reduce his over sea’s agents whom he assigned purposely to watch over the political affairs of the Ethiopian people in diaspora and to prevent them from criticizing the evil nature of the Meles’ regime. He must reduce his cabinet members’ salary by a certain amount of money. He can also make plenty of money by selling some of the Ethiopian valuable gold and other minerals in order to save the lives of the Ethiopian children.
There are, if he is willing to do and not depending on foreign aids, many other things he can do; for example, he can step down when his term in office expires and donate all the extra money he has amassed so far for the Ethiopian children aid agency, and this is what putting one’s own house in order before death comes in means.
melez is busy coz in somalia make him busy i thing he was expecting that it will be easy to controll muqdisho while his children is seeing hungry
I thought by now nearly 75% of Ethiopians should be a middle while the others are upper class due to the looting and deceiving. Didn’t Meles tell the whole world that Ethiopia economy grew by more than 10.8%; although he ment to say that the weyane members economy grew by more than a million%; I pray to the people of Ethiopia that are being rules by these heartless, brainless, and ruthless individuals.