Ethiopia tries to cover up a new famine
18 November, 2009 | By Francis Elliot
It wasn’t famine that killed Jamal Ali’s mother. She died in a cholera
outbreak that swept through their Ethiopian village when at last the
rains came. Twenty-five years later Jamal, now a parent himself, is
lining up for handouts in a food distribution centre in Harbu,
Amhara, His prematurely aged face, hollow with hunger, creases
further when asked about this unwelcome return. “It is a very bitter
feeling. No one likes this begging. I am ashamed,” he said.
Up a steep, dusty track from Harbu to Chorisa village the tiny,
duncoloured terraced fields bare witness to the third poor harvest in
a row. This village is supposed to be an aid showpiece but even
here fields of failed cereal crops are being turned over to lean-
looking cattle.
representing Africa in the climate change negotiations next month
than his country’s never-ending dependency on food aid.
In Addis Ababa Ethiopian and Western officials voice disapproval
of doom-laden reports that fail to acknowledge the progress being
made, or the differences in scale between the famine of 1984, which
killed a million people, and the situation today.
In private they acknowledge that Mr Meles and his Government are
deliberately frustrating and delaying official assessments of the scale
of the country’s humanitarian needs and blocking access to some
areas where the situation is worst.
The latest UN estimate, to be released this Friday, is due to revise
its figure upwards to nine million for those who will need help.
Arguing that the definition of those in need is too broad — it
includes those who are in a position to sell assets to buy food — the
Government wants to change the way the figures are calculated to
reduce that figure to 5 million.
Donor countries and the UN fear that counting only the truly
desperate is a ploy that risks understating the true scale of the crisis.
There are also allegations that food aid is being withheld from the
regime’s opponents.
Criticism of Ethiopia has been muted by its success in improving
local healthcare and expanding education, alongside its strategic
importance in the fight against Islamic extremism in the Horn of
Africa. Britain, which gives the country £200 million a year, and is
Ethiopia’s second-largest bilateral donor, is stepping up the pressure
on what was once regarded as its showpiece partner in Africa, amid
growing concerns about what could happen in the coming months.
“The Government has just got to embrace the crisis and not be
frightened of the statistics,” Gareth Thomas, a minister with the
Department for International Development, said yesterday. “It is
different from 1984 but there’s still huge need. There’s got to be a
recognition that if we are going to stop children from being
malnourished and keep people alive we have got to have accurate
information and we’ve got to have it in a timely manner.”
Speaking before a meeting with Mr Meles, Mr Thomas said that he
also intended to raise credible reports that aid was being withheld
from opponents, but insisted he was satisfied that British aid was
getting through. His main message, however, was that the
Government had not yet grasped the urgent need for reform. The
population, about 35 million in 1984, is now about 80 million and
will have doubled again by 2050. At the same time, according to
some estimates, most Ethiopian agriculture is still less productive
than that of medieval England.
Mr Meles blames climate change for the erratic rainfall that has led
to three successive poor harvests. The state’s ownership of land and
its failure to provide seeds and fertiliser is at least as a big a factor,
according to observers.
Similarly, the Government has overseen the building of an impressive
road network — but in the absence of a thriving private sector and a
more liberalised economy the traffic, other than convoys of aid
vehicles, is light.
Two million Ethiopians a year are moving into cities as pressure on
the land and education increase, a movement that threatens to
overwhelm the state’s efforts to provide housing and jobs.
More than half of Britain’s annual aid budget of £117 million goes
on helping to fund work schemes that keep 7.5 million Ethiopians
out of the food distribution centres. With less than 5 per cent of the
population becoming fully self-reliant in most areas each year, the
dependency on foreign aid threatens to increase not diminish.
Courtesy
18 November, 2009 | By Francis Elliot
It wasn’t famine that killed Jamal Ali’s mother. She died in a cholera
outbreak that swept through their Ethiopian village when at last the
rains came. Twenty-five years later Jamal, now a parent himself, is
lining up for handouts in a food distribution centre in Harbu,
Amhara, His prematurely aged face, hollow with hunger, creases
further when asked about this unwelcome return. “It is a very bitter
feeling. No one likes this begging. I am ashamed,” he said.
Up a steep, dusty track from Harbu to Chorisa village the tiny,
duncoloured terraced fields bare witness to the third poor harvest in
a row. This village is supposed to be an aid showpiece but even
here fields of failed cereal crops are being turned over to lean-
looking cattle.
- A villager strips an ear of the
cereal crop tef and cups the
inedible seed in her hand for a
moment before casting into a
relentlessly sky. It’s not that the
rains didn’t come, she said — they
came just at the wrong time. The
field was supposed to yield 500
kilograms of cash crop; now it
might just save a few cows from
starvation.
The UN warns that 6.2 million
Ethiopians will need some sort of
food aid in the coming months. The
Government also seems highly
sensitive to the idea that it needs
help. Meles Zenawi, the Prime
Minister, would rather the world
took notice of his position
representing Africa in the climate change negotiations next month
than his country’s never-ending dependency on food aid.
In Addis Ababa Ethiopian and Western officials voice disapproval
of doom-laden reports that fail to acknowledge the progress being
made, or the differences in scale between the famine of 1984, which
killed a million people, and the situation today.
In private they acknowledge that Mr Meles and his Government are
deliberately frustrating and delaying official assessments of the scale
of the country’s humanitarian needs and blocking access to some
areas where the situation is worst.
The latest UN estimate, to be released this Friday, is due to revise
its figure upwards to nine million for those who will need help.
Arguing that the definition of those in need is too broad — it
includes those who are in a position to sell assets to buy food — the
Government wants to change the way the figures are calculated to
reduce that figure to 5 million.
Donor countries and the UN fear that counting only the truly
desperate is a ploy that risks understating the true scale of the crisis.
There are also allegations that food aid is being withheld from the
regime’s opponents.
Criticism of Ethiopia has been muted by its success in improving
local healthcare and expanding education, alongside its strategic
importance in the fight against Islamic extremism in the Horn of
Africa. Britain, which gives the country £200 million a year, and is
Ethiopia’s second-largest bilateral donor, is stepping up the pressure
on what was once regarded as its showpiece partner in Africa, amid
growing concerns about what could happen in the coming months.
“The Government has just got to embrace the crisis and not be
frightened of the statistics,” Gareth Thomas, a minister with the
Department for International Development, said yesterday. “It is
different from 1984 but there’s still huge need. There’s got to be a
recognition that if we are going to stop children from being
malnourished and keep people alive we have got to have accurate
information and we’ve got to have it in a timely manner.”
Speaking before a meeting with Mr Meles, Mr Thomas said that he
also intended to raise credible reports that aid was being withheld
from opponents, but insisted he was satisfied that British aid was
getting through. His main message, however, was that the
Government had not yet grasped the urgent need for reform. The
population, about 35 million in 1984, is now about 80 million and
will have doubled again by 2050. At the same time, according to
some estimates, most Ethiopian agriculture is still less productive
than that of medieval England.
Mr Meles blames climate change for the erratic rainfall that has led
to three successive poor harvests. The state’s ownership of land and
its failure to provide seeds and fertiliser is at least as a big a factor,
according to observers.
Similarly, the Government has overseen the building of an impressive
road network — but in the absence of a thriving private sector and a
more liberalised economy the traffic, other than convoys of aid
vehicles, is light.
Two million Ethiopians a year are moving into cities as pressure on
the land and education increase, a movement that threatens to
overwhelm the state’s efforts to provide housing and jobs.
More than half of Britain’s annual aid budget of £117 million goes
on helping to fund work schemes that keep 7.5 million Ethiopians
out of the food distribution centres. With less than 5 per cent of the
population becoming fully self-reliant in most areas each year, the
dependency on foreign aid threatens to increase not diminish.
Courtesy
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