It is our duty to answer. We must do everything in our power, no matter how little it is to come to their aid, and come now before it is too late. The logistics of supplying so many people with the basic needs of life, food, water, shelter, medicine, are daunting to say the least, but if we can send men to the moon, and plan a voyage to mars, spend billions on wars; then with a united effort we can do this. If we don’t, the greatest tragedy in human history will take place.

I for one don’t want the blood of eleven-million on my hands, and I doubt if you do either. Pick up the torch, put your shoulder to the wheel and let us see if we can’t prevent this catastrophe from happening.

In areas where rain does not fulfill the crops water needs, groundwater can become a source of water. With proper water management, groundwater can be used in the long-term for agriculture. Observe the amateur video below on the use of solar power to extract the groundwater in Ziway of east Shewa zone of Oromia.

Video info: Solar thermal pumping in Ziway, Ethiopia. New type of solar thermal pump being used to irrigate cash crops on smallholder farm in Central Ethiopia

where a repressive regime fails to provide data on the humanitarian needs of its own people. The free flow of information is what allows people to make early choices that can help avert catastrophe. We urge the Government of Eritrea to cooperate with the UN agencies and other international organizations to address the issue of hunger and food shortage in that country.”

In the briefing Al Jazeera journalist asked Mr. Carson about the situation in Eritrea and here is the excerpt

QUESTION: Camille Elhassani from Al-Jazeera English Television. I had a question about Eritrea. You – Mr. Carson, you’ve called for them to provide the data so that you know what the situation is there. Has there – have you seen refugees from Eritrea moving into neighboring countries, and do you have an expectation that they are going to cooperate so that you and the other international community can help them?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CARSON: Eritrea is a closed and increasingly reclusive country, and its government has not been particularly helpful in sharing data and information about the severity of the food shortages or the drought in its country. Because it is a part of the Greater Horn of Africa, we assume that conditions in Eritrea are probably quite similar to the drought conditions that we are seeing in other places – in Ethiopia and in Kenya, Djibouti, and in Somalia. Because we don’t know what’s happening, our understanding of the situation is limited, but we encourage them to be more open about their needs and the needs of their population.

Have Your Say. Is Eritrea hiding a humanitarian crisis?

Source: Nazret .com

Magistrates Redaei Belay, Yirga Aycheh, and Zerihun Aragaw of the Lideta branch of the Federal Court in the capital Addis Ababa ordered the release of editor Haileyesus Worku and producer Abdulsemed Mohammed of the ruling EPRDF-controlled national broadcaster Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) from Kality Prison on bail of 5,000 birr (US$290) each, according to local journalists and news reports. The judges forbade Worku and Mohammed from leaving the country pending a verdict in the case, the same sources said.

The ruling followed public prosecutors’ amendment of the charges against the journalists from vague corruption allegations, a non-bailable offense, to copyright infringement, the sources said. ERTA General-Manager Zeray Asgedom ordered the arrests of Worku and Mohammed in April 2010 on accusations of illegally copying ERTA audiovisual materials to sell to a third, unnamed party.

A week after their arrests, Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon told CPJ that the journalists had been “caught red-handed,” but public prosecutors did not file a formal charge until June 2010, according to CPJ research. CPJ has questioned the validity of the charges in light of the Ethiopian government’s documented practice of using bogus criminal charges to silence critical journalists and the EPRDF’s censorship of ERTA by purging the publicly funded national broadcaster of senior professional journalists in favor of party loyalists. Worku and Mohammed have both been ERTA veterans for more than 10 years.

“We are relieved that, after enduring 15 months of imprisonment on questionable criminal charges, Haileyesus Worku and Abdulsemed Mohammed can prepare their defense in freedom,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “We call on the prosecutors to drop the charges altogether.”

With six other journalists behind bars, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea among the nations in Africa jailing the most journalists, according to CPJ research.

Vast blocks of fertile land in the Omo River area in south west Ethiopia are being leased out to Malaysian, Italian and Korean companies, as well as being cleared for vast state-run plantations producing export crops, even though 90,000 tribal people in the area depend on the land to survive.

The government is planning to increase the amount of land to be cleared to at least 245,000 hectares, much of it for vast sugar cane plantations.
Tribal peoples will be devastated by the current boom in dam-building.A Survival investigation has uncovered alarming evidence that some of Ethiopia’s most productive farmland is being stolen from local tribes and leased to foreign companies to grow and export food – while thousands of its citizens starve during the devastating drought.

Vast blocks of fertile land in the Omo River area in south west Ethiopia are being leased out to Malaysian, Italian and Korean companies, as well as being cleared for vast state-run plantations producing export crops, even though 90,000 tribal people in the area depend on the land to survive.

The government is planning to increase the amount of land to be cleared to at least 245,000 hectares, much of it for vast sugar cane plantations.
Tribal peoples will be devastated by the current boom in dam-building.

African Union’s High Representative for Somalia,  former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, talked from Mogadishu about the ongoing famin in East Africa.

JJ Rawlings visited one of the refugees camp and emotionally spoke to the BBC’s Hassan Arouni ands CNN Isha Sessay about what he saw.

Follow the link for the BBC audio interview.

Interviewer: In the mid-1960s something was revealed in our country. Many people were waging struggles. You were in the struggle. In the Oxford dictionary, for the word famine, the example given is Ethiopia. How does that make you feel as an Ethiopian?
Zenawi: It is a mixed up situation. On the one hand, like any citizen, I am very sad. I am ashamed. It is degrading. A society that built the Lalibela churches some thousand years ago is unable to cultivate the land and feed itself. A society that built the Axum obelisks some 2-3 thousand years ago is unable to cultivate the land and feed itself. That is very sad. It is very shameful. Of all the things, to go out begging for one’s daily bread, to be a beggar nation is dehumanizing. Therefore, I feel great shame. In the end though these things are not the mistakes of a single individual. They have their own long history, and cannot be eliminated through anger or regrets. In a similar way, it requires a long struggle and determination and defiance of not just one but 3 or 4 generations. I understand that is what it takes. Until that is removed and eliminated, until I finish playing my role in it, all I can do is say Amen and accept this shame and degradation. This is the kind of feeling it creates in me.
In 1995, Zenawi was self-effacing but cocky about his vision of a nation that is well-fed and -clothed in a decade or two with people dancing in the streets, at least living not too far from paved streets. Responding to a question from what appears to be an audience of friends and supporters, Zenawi envisioned:
Questioner: In 10 or 15 years from now, is there a vision that you see that would make you happy. Can you tell us two or three things about that?
Zenawi: Ten years from now (laughter). Let me start with ten years from now. One big thing I think will happen and dream about is that all Ethiopians will get three meals a day (applause). After that may be, if everything works out well, my hope is that Ethiopians will have two or three changes of clothes. If everything works out, all Ethiopians will live within two hours of a paved road. If we do this, we would have done a miracle (laughter). If we go to twenty years, we would have clinics, schools, access to roads of less than two hours, not just eat three times a day. We may even have a choice of foods and selection of clothes. I hope in twenty years, we will have good outcomes (applause).
Sixteen years later in 2011, the Black Horseman is standing at the gate. Zenawi stands alongside with folded arms feigning shame for the fact that Ethiopia is perceived to be synonymous with famine. Recently, the U.N. predicted the “worst drought in the last 60 years” for Ethiopia and neighboring countries. UNICEF warned “millions of children and women are at risk from death and disease unless a rapid and speedy response is put into action.”
The world dreads to see once again the haunting skeletal figures of Ethiopian famine victims splattered across the television screen reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. Blame history Zenawi bleated philosophically: “In the end though these things are not the mistakes of a single individual. They have their own long history….”
Shame Without Guilt
Zenawi’s declaration of shame and regret for famine and chronic food shortages in Ethiopia is reminiscent of those American televangelists who publicly confess their sins when caught in a shameful scandal but take no responsibility for their transgressions. The devil did it or made them do it. For Zenawi, the blame should be placed on history, drought, climate change, heartless donors and divine retribution. Famine is not something he could have anticipated or planned to prevent. Famine just happens. No one is responsible.
Shame and guilt are often trivialized in the modern world. After the fall of the Third Reich, few came forward to express shame for their callous indifference to the acts of inhumanity committed in their name, and even fewer felt or admitted guilt for their own criminal acts. They conveniently dissociated themselves from the inhuman acts by adopting a shockingly matter-of-fact attitude: “It was what it was.” Nothing more. Of course, they had their regrets. The super-state that was to last a thousand years lasted only twelve.
During the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in South Africa, many of the officials who perpetrated atrocities “felt” ashamed for torturing and mistreating black South Africans, but few openly admitted guilt and took full responsibility for their actions. They said they were acting in the name of the government or simply following official orders. They were not personally responsible.
The street criminal also feels shame for robbing or assaulting his victim, but rarely admits legal guilt, and even more rarely moral guilt and take responsibility. He too feels regrets, for getting caught.
It is common for dictators to acknowledge the fact of their wrongdoing without feeling shame or guilt. Stalin unapologetically declared, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” In 1959 during China’s Great Famine Mao casually remarked in a speech: “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.” After the massacre of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators following the 2005 elections in Ethiopia, Zenawi feigned pangs of conscience: “I regret the deaths but these were not normal demonstrations. You don’t see hand grenades thrown at normal demonstrations.” When his own handpicked Inquiry Commission determined after a meticulous investigation that the demonstrators were unarmed and carried no weapons of any kind, Zenawi ignored the report and did nothing. Today, 237 killers still roam the streets free.
In the final analysis, when famine consumes hundreds of thousands of people or untold numbers of people die for simple lack of food, it is the responsibility of the man at the helm, the guy in the driver’s seat. But never in Ethiopia. Emperor Haile Selassie said he did not know about the famine in 1974 until it was too late. He was not responsible. Junta leader Mengistu Hailemariam said he was not responsible for the famine in 1984 because there was no famine. Over a million people died in that famine. Zenawi says the famine in Ethiopia today is not the responsibility of any one individual. No one in leadership position has ever taken responsibility for the recurrent famines in Ethiopia.
One must have a conscience to feel shame, admit guilt and take responsibility. To say dictators have conscience is like saying snakes have legs. Dictators are the quintessential narcissists who care about and love only themselves. They are incapable of feeling shame, guilt, compassion or appreciation. Their raison d’etre (reason for existence) is the pursuit of power at any cost to dominate and control others.
Our conscience is that “inner voice” or “inner light” that helps us distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, guilt from innocence, love from hate and virtue from vice. Guilt is the flip side of shame. The bifurcation of shame from guilt is the clearest manifestation of the lack of conscience. But if one feels shame and admits guilt (moral or legal) for the actions (or omissions) producing the shame, he experiences an inner transformation which compels him to make amends. The painful feeling of dishonor, disgrace, humiliation and self-criticism transforms the shameful act into an honorable act or at least produces genuine atonement. Real admission of guilt is always followed by moral self-redemption and salvation.
Eastern philosophy teaches that “when the mind is face to face with the Truth, a self-luminous spark of thought is revealed at the inner core of ourselves and, by analogy, all of reality.” When we come face to face with the truth of our shameful act and our conscience is awakened, we naturally and effortlessly make efforts to make amends.
Confession Time?
While we are on the subject of shame, regrets, guilt and all that, I have my own confession to make. I am ashamed Ethiopia is a country
that has become the butt of famine jokes (not just an entry in the Oxford Dictionary).
known primarily for its poverty.
where elections are stolen in broad daylight.
where the rule of law and human rights are trampled every day with impunity.
where 237 security thugs walk free after killing 193 unarmed demonstrators and wounding nearly 800.
with the worst prison system in the world.
classified as the world’s worst backslider on press freedom.
with lowest internet penetration in the world after Sierra Leone.
I am ashamed Ethiopia is classified together with the worst countries in the world on the
Corruption Index (most corrupt countries).
Failed States Index (most failed states).
Index of Economic Freedom (economically most repressive countries).
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Investment Climate Assessment (most unfriendly to business).
Ibrahim Index of African Governance (most poorly governed African countries).
Bertelsmann Political and Economic Transformation Index (most in need of reform).
Environmental Performance Index (poorest environmental and public health indicators).
But I am also proud, mighty proud. I am proud of the unity of the Ethiopian people despite the efforts of those who toil day and night to divide them by ethnicity, region, religion, language and whatever else. I am proud of Ethiopia’s culture of respect, compassion and tolerance. Most of all, I am super proud of Ethiopia’s young people. They are the only lifeline to the survival of that nation.
I wear a badge of shame on the left and a badge of pride on the right. But between my pride and shame lies my overwhelming sense of gnawing guilt. It is guilt that manifests itself in a moral quandary about what I could have done, can do now and in the future, particularly for the young people of Ethiopia to reclaim their destiny. The solutions to Ethiopia’s famine, poverty, disease, illiteracy and the rest of it will not come from self-adulating, forked-tongue dictators who cling to power like ticks on a milk cow, but from Ethiopia’s young men and women.
Zenawi says he is ashamed of the recurrent famine in Ethiopia and is resigned to accepting it with an “Amen.” The crocodile also sheds tears. But a dictator professing shame without admitting guilt is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “an evil soul producing holy witness, a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart.”
But can you hear the silent screams of the starving Ethiopians? Can you see their quiet riots against tyranny? If you can’t, what a crying shame!

Yosef Mulugeta, an Ethiopian lawyer and former secretary general of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHCRO), is asking for the support of the international community in his struggle to bring about peaceful change in Ethiopia.

Donor nations, including Japan, “must use their leverage for human rights,” said Mulugeta, who recently received the 2010-2011 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism from London-based Human Rights Watch at its annual dinner in Tokyo.

“This recognition will give Ethiopian activists all over the world, not just me, a feeling of hope,” Mulugeta said.

The award was presented earlier this month to honor defenders of human rights movements.

Mulugeta headed EHCRO, an organization in Ethiopia that systematically documents human rights abuses and publishes records of human rights violations. It also provides legal services for victims of human rights abuse as well as human rights education for citizens.

HRW claims Ethiopia’s international partners have turned a blind eye and increased their aid to the government even though it has become increasingly authoritarian.

“The U.S., along with European governments, consider Ethiopia a key ally in the war on terror and this, among other institutional interests, such as political commitments to high levels of aid spending, makes changing policy on Ethiopia an uphill battle,” Ben Rawlence, a researcher with HRW’s African Division, said during the annual dinner.

Japan, a major donor to Ethiopia, has increased aid to the nation as part of a commitment in 2008 during the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, better known as TICAD IV. Japan committed to doubling its aid to Africa by 2012.

According to the OECD Creditor Reporting System, Japan gave $34.2 million to Ethiopia in 2007 and $32.7 million in 2008, then upped the ante to $96.6 million in 2009.

An HRW report published late last year says the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, the ruling party that has held power for nearly two decades, underwrites repression in Ethiopia by adopting a policy of partisan access to domestic development programs.

International human rights groups and opposition forces have also leveled charges of corruption in the 2010 election, in which the ruling party and a small coalition of affiliated parties reportedly won 99.6 percent of the seats.

Mulugeta said he was forced to flee and seek political asylum in the U.S. in 2009.

At its peak, EHCRO had 12 branches around the country and close to 60 staff members, but the group was forced to operate at reduced capacity following the enactment of laws in 2009 that restricted local organizations from receiving more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources, he said.

As a major donor to Ethiopia, Japan has a responsibility to make sure aid given to the country is not used for political purposes, HRW’s Rawlence said.

“Japan has interests, just like the rest of the world, in shipping through Somali waters and the gulf, the Red Sea,” he said, adding that Japan has built a base in Djibouti where Self-Defense Forces personnel involved in antipiracy operations are stationed.

Bringing about democracy to Ethiopia would require the Japanese government to talk tough with the Ethiopian government, Mulugeta said.

“Japan wants stability, and its idea of stability is a dictatorship,” he said. “But in the long run, history shows, dictatorships are not stable; democracy is stable.”

As part of the campaign, Tinsae Ethiopia is sending out letters to foreign affairs officials of various countries who have strong diplomatic presence in Ethiopia.

In a message to the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald E. Booth, Tinsae Ethiopia has thanked the U.S. Government for taking the lead in trying to save millions of Ethiopians from the looming famine, while expressing its disappointment over the U.S. support to Meles Zenawi’s brutal dictatorship that is partially, and in some cases directly, responsible for the current food shortage.

Tinsae Ethiopia has urged the U.S. to work with pro-democracy Ethiopians to help bring about a positive change in the country.

Tinsae Ethiopia will communicate with officials of the U.K., Germany, French, and other countries in the coming few days.

The civil resistance campaign Tinsae Ethiopia has launched will also be intensified.

Political Affairs Office
Tinsae Ethiopia
Addis Ababa

More more info: tinsae.org
Email: tinsae.ethiopia@gmail.com

Washington DC—In response to a recent Addis Voice investigative report, VOA embroiled in fresh censorship row, Voice of America issued a very brief statement Thursday explaining why VOA skipped coverage of a high profile public meeting held at the Sheraton in Arlington, Virginia. The event was jointly organized by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Ginbot 7 and the Alliance for Liberty Equality and Justice in Ethiopia (ALEJE).

“There are many news events going on in the Washington area and VOA cannot cover them all. That is all we will have for you on this matter,” David Borgida, VOA Director of Public Relations, said in an email. But the PR director later declined to give further clarifications and answers to follow-up questions on the matter.

Contrary to VOA’s official statement, Addis Voice can reveal that the Amharic desk had assigned an experienced staff member, who attended the event, to do the report that was scheduled to be aired on Monday July 11. According to reliable sources, the decision to censor the coverage was made by the Director of Africa Division, Gwen Dillard.
Ms. Dillard has reportedly communicated to Horn of Africa staff members that VOA should give less attention to the Ethiopian Diaspora as well as issues focused on political affairs. She emailed to staff that VOA would be more focused on development related matters, a questionable line which appears to be consistent with the demands of the Meles regime.

It emerged that Ms. Dillard was asked by her bosses why the event was not covered. She informed them that no one was assigned to cover it.

“What Ms. Dillard told her bosses not only contradicts the truth but also seems to be a cover-up effort on her part. The truth of the matter was that she cut out the event from VOA coverage by inserting her disparaging bias to the Ethiopian Diaspora,” said one of our sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dillard had earlier sent out emails to Horn of Africa section staff members that practically imposed a news and opinion blackout on issues related to the David Arnold saga as well as the controversy over censorship at VOA. As a result of her orders, a lot of listeners’ call-in comments on the ongoing controversy at VOA have been filtered out, according to informed sources.

“VOA, as an independent broadcaster, cannot filter unfavorable news and opinions about its conduct and integrity. It beggars belief to suppose that VOA only reports about others but not matters closer to home,” another source added.

After Arnold was removed from his position as Horn of Africa chief, Dillard has made some questionable interventions in the affairs of the section. Dallard also refused to approve coverage of the 28th annual Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) event, which was held from July 3 to July 9 in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Addis Voice has also learned that the controversial June 23rd VOA report on the visit of three Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG) and VOA delegation to Ethiopia contains no factual errors. Mr. Arnold accurately revealed that Bereket Simon, Meles Zenawi’s close confidant and Minister of Government Communication Affairs, demanded the delegation to ban a long list of dissidents and critics from VOA airwaves.

Arnold was suspended in a letter written by BBG Governor Michael Meehan, a member of the delegation that met with Ethiopian government officials last month. While the official VOA position on the report in question is that it contained unacceptable inaccuracies, it emerged that no single factual error was found in the report. “The suspension of Arnold for telling the truth was shocking. It created a sense of insecurity among his colleagues,” a source said.

The Board of Broadcasting Governors met last Thursday to look at ongoing strategic reviews and reform processes. One of the delegates to Ethiopia, Southern Sudan and Nigeria, BBG Governor Susan McCue, told the board that some progress was made in Southern Sudan and Nigeria in relation of the expansion of VOA broadcasts. McCue reported neither success nor failure during the delegation’s tense meetings with Bereket Simon, who is widely seen in Ethiopia as the archenemy of press freedom. Simon is also in charge of jamming VOA and other broadcasts to Ethiopia.

Ethiopian activists have called a rally next Monday, July 25th at VOA headquarters, 330 Independence Ave SW, Washington DC, to demand VOA and BBG to investigate allegations of censorship and malpractice. The protesters will also petition the US Congress, BBG and State Department to look into controversial developments related to allegations of censorship and maladministration at VOA to appease the Meles regime.

—-

Addis Voice will publish a secret document tomorrow that contains a long list of critics and opinions blacklisted by the Meles regime.

Abebe Gellaw can be reached at editor@addisvoice.com

But in the person of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s autocratic leader, now in power for two theatrical decades, are exemplified the mavericks who see no need to be restrained by strictures imposed in bygone ages. And Parliament has been the venue of choice for Meles Zenawi to demonstrate his break with the past. This is clearly a “no-holds-barred” politician, to borrow a phrase from the world of wrestling. He rages at will against opponents, relishes mocking Parliamentarians, and oft-times flings tactless words with startling ease, all on live radio and TV transmissions to the nation. He cares not who is outraged.

It was in one of those melodramatic moments in Parliament that Meles deliberated on what it takes to be a capable member of his cabinet. To be educated is not essentially indispensable, he said. Even an illiterate person could be a member of my cabinet, he told a shocked nation. All it takes to be a competent Minister in this cabinet is a thorough knowledge of EPRDF’s program, he winded down triumphantly.

He was not bluffing.

Meet his long time Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and presumed heir, Adisu Legese, now retired (pushed aside, some contend) with generous perks since the 2010 elections.

Now, Adisu is no prototype of the illiterate Meles had alluded to. Make no mistake there. He has been to elementary school, and then proceeded to high school. In the 50s this was no small feat. More impressive, he went to college. And he graduated. Undeniably, this is a man with some education. But, alas, as has been extensively reported over the years, he was trained to be a physical education instructor. There was hardly the predisposition nor the need to apply himself to the hard sciences.

Between his graduation and retirement almost four decades were to pass. After a brief stint as a physical education instructor in a public school, he spent roughly a decade and a half as an insurgent. And then a decade as President of the Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second largest. Finally, at the apex of his political career, he was Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The pride of the EPRDF, the ruling party, is its agricultural-led industrialization plan. This is supposed to be the answer to Ethiopia’s quandary of entrenched underdevelopment, the means to food self-sufficiency and the emergence of a middle class in the midst of Ethiopia’s rural majority. Unlike virtually all other developmental schemes, the agrarian sector is at the core of this blueprint. Fail there and the entirety of the grand blueprint goes down the drain.

Two ministries, that of agriculture and rural development, were initially entrusted with the primary responsibilities to oversee this plan. They were later merged into a single Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The Parliamentary Proclamation that established MARD lists its duties as conservation and use of forest and wildlife resources, food security, water use and small-scale irrigation, monitoring events affecting agricultural development and early warning system, promoting agricultural development, and establishing and providing agriculture and rural technology training.

Unlike some other ministries, this is a turf where not merely political but also technical leadership from the very top is crucial. Adisu was by no means the professional the Ministry needed during its crucial early years. It was only a question of time before morale was to suffer.

Of course, there is more than misplaced Adisu to explain EPRDF-led Ethiopia’s failure to attain food self-sufficiency. The failure is structural as well as policy. What Adisu’s long tenure at MARD rather explains is an ingrained complacency with the status-quo. There is no sense of national crisis and emergency, despite consistent dependence on food aid for decades. Food aid is expected and tolerated even amongst policy makers. A distinctive case of food-aid-dependency-syndrome has developed at government level.

Meanwhile, millions suffer. The Ethiopian government on Monday acknowledged that 40 percent more people than last year are in need of food aid. This means 4.5 million are hungry. USAID estimates many more. Without food aid there will be devastating famine.

The tolls from past famines are shocking. The worst one lasted ten years between 1888 and 1898. One third of the populace and 90 percent of herds were lost. Eritrea was lost to the Italians as an immediate consequence. But 60 years were to pass before another major famine was to break out in 1958. Close to 100,000 died in Tigray alone. Tens of thousands more died in the mid-seventies, mostly in Wello. But thanks to food aid, famines have largely been avoided since. Only the “biblical famine” of 1984-1985 was the exception.

And Meles savors any opportunity to point out that there were food shortages, not famine, under his watch. This is supposed to be the progress that should endear him to Ethiopians. And here lies the mentality that has nurtured not only complacency and dependency but also kind of a love story between the EPRDF and hunger/food-aid.

Ultimately, there is permanent hunger in Ethiopia because there has never been a government accountable to an electorate that could throw it out of office. Only under a dictatorship is permanent hunger possible. Democracies do not go hungry for two decades. Hunger is a political problem in Ethiopia. It requires a political solution.

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Corrigendum:

Professor Tecola Hagos writes:

I have two points that should be corrected or clarified so there be no misunderstanding: 1) You referred to Emperor Yohannes IV as “King Yohannes” that is a gross error if it is intentional. During the period you were referring to, there was a treaty signed by Ethiopia and Great Britain/Egypt on 3rd of June 1884 (Hewett Treaty) wherein Yohannes is referred to as “Negoos Negust of Ethiopia” i.e. “King of Kings.” Emperor Yohannes IV by then had already appointed Kings under him. Emperor Yohannes confirmed King Menilik as King of Shoa in 1878; he also appointed Ras Adal Tesema of Gojam as King Teklehaymanot of Gojam and Keffa in 1881. Thus, referring to Emperor Yohannes IV as “King Yohannes” is inappropriate and must be corrected.

Professor Tecola is absolutely right. My regrets. Thank you Professor.

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Fight tyranny from your PC. This website is blocked in Ethiopia. Keep posting articles on your facebook pages, which are available in Ethiopia.

In the first of our Land Grab Series, we examine Ethiopia’s “Land Grab”, and the dispossession of tens of thousands (if not millions eventually) of Ethiopian citizens, under the 20-year old authoritarian and brutal regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which is leasing Ethiopian land for up to 99 years to foreign businesses and governments without any significant consultation with the people most affected.

We explore why a “beggar nation” like Ethiopia which cannot feed many of its people, that is suffering from famine, perennial food shortages, endemic hunger, and chronic dependency on foreign aid, is selling off its fertile lands and natural resources to foreign agro-businesses to grow food that will be exported to their own countries. Ethiopia is currently experiencing its worst drought and famine in sixty years.To help us make some sense of the land grab in Ethiopia, and why such a poor country with a repressive government, and a well documented history of serious human rights violation, is none-the-less a major US (and western) ally in its geo-strategic posture in Africa and in its war against terror. Our guests on today’s program on AfrobeaRadio on WBAI, joining us on the phone are, Mr. Obang Metho and Mr. Abdikarim Rabi.

Mr. Obang Metho is the Executive Director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE). According to its website, SMNE is a “non-violent, non-political, grassroots social justice movement of diverse Ethiopians; committed to bringing truth, justice, freedom, equality, reconciliation, accountability and respect for human and civil rights to the people of Ethiopia and beyond.” SMNE is also a co-author of a recent report on Ethiopia Land Grab with the Oakland Institute.

Mr. Abdikarim Rabi is member of Ogaden Youth and Student Union, a member of ICARE, and Americans Against the Genocide in Ogadenia, an anti-genocide movement.

A World Bank report, Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits? reveals that the government of Ethiopia transferred 1.2 million hectares of land between 2004 and 2009, noting that in most cases, “the expected job growth and net investment were very low.” The following table from the report shows countries with the “large land acquisitions.According to the California-based think tank, the Oakland Institute:

“in 2009 alone nearly 60 million ha– an area the size of France – was purchased or leased in comparison to an average annual expansion of global agricultural land of less than 4 million ha before 2008.”

And in its latest published report on Ethiopia: Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa; Country Report: Ethiopia in May 2011 in collaboration with the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), the report finds, among others, that 36% of the land so far given away by the Meles Zenawi regime is in Oromia (i.e. 1,319,214 Hectares of the 3,619,509 Hectares of land grabbed by neo-colonizers throughout the region as of January 2011). On the other hand, 42% and 27% of the land in Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz, respectively, has already been grabbed or is up for grabs. The figures according to the report by the Oakland Institute and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia “likely understate the true extent of land [grab] as only the most reliable information was [provided].”To Read Oakland Institute/SMNE Full Report Document, click here

Despite having received billions of dollars in aid, Ethiopians remain among the poorest in the world, largely due to poor government policies and practices. Nearly a sixth of all Ethiopians are on some form of food assistance. Food aid is itself often used as a tool of patronage, doled out as a reward for political support, and also withheld as punishment to those labeled enemies of the government. The Ethiopian government has also imposed commercial food embargoes on entire regions and populations as part of its repressive policies and practices.

In a report filed by Thomas Mountain on AfrobeatRadio, Ethiopia Buys Arms As Millions Starve, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced the purchase of 200 military tanks at a whopping price tag of $100 million, a day after Britain announced its pledge of $60 million in food aid to Ethiopia.

In response to this conduct, Thomas Mountain wrote:

“One of the primary reasons Ethiopia needs 200 tanks is to conduct its counterinsurgency campaigns against the ethnically based armed uprisings slowly engulfing much of the country. From the Ogaden in the south east, to Tigray in the north to Gambella in the west, and now [as ] reported, even spreading to much of Oromia in the south west, the Ethiopian regime needs to be able to crush its own people and the latest installment of armor is long over due. It is already 11 years since Ethiopia invaded Eritrea and in the process lost its best armored divisions, including at least 2 in one day long disaster called the Battle of Tsorona(last part of this not clear).”

Tanks work well against lightly armed guerilla fighters and even better when it comes to crushing civilian uprisings, something those in the western and UN “aid” agencies are fully cognizant of. Now that Ethiopia has become a source of “peacekeepers” in Sudan some of these Ethiopian tanks may be used to uphold Pax Americana on the North-South Sudanese border which includes Sudan’s oil fields.

According to several humanitarian organizations including Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia’s military campaigns have triggered a serious humanitarian crisis. Ethopian military crackdown has led to widespread violence in which entire villages have been destroyed. Citizens also suffer from arbitrary arrests, theft, rape and murder by Ethiopian soldiers. “In October 2007, The Independent reported that the situation in Ogaden had begun to mirror the Darfur conflict, with refugees stating that government troops had burned villages and raped and killed civilians.”

In its report, Human Rights Watch claims that;

“civilians have been killed in what appears to be a deliberate effort to mete out collective punishment against a civilian population suspected of sympathizing with the rebels.”

HRW says it has documented dozens of cases of severe abuse by Ethiopian troops in the Ogaden, including gang rapes, burned villages and what it calls “demonstration killings,” like hanging and beheading of populace, meant to terrorize the population.

Compiled and hosted by Wuyi Jacobs

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Drought victim, Ethiopia, July 2011 (Reuters)

The Ethiopian government in April appealed for US$398.4 million to provide emergency food assistance for millions of drought victims. The drought which has hit several countries in East Africa, including Somalia is the worst in 60 years.

The Ministry of Agriculture said some 4.5 million Ethiopians are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance, 40 percent more than estimated in April.

The Disaster Pre-emergency and Response unit and the Ministry of Agriculture are jointly assisting the worst hit areas, with every victim receiving half a litre of edible oil, 15 kilograms of wheat and a balance diet is being distributed to malnourished children.

According to Mitiku Kassa, Agriculture Minister, 380,000 metric tons of food is needed to assist the effected people including 700,000 children under five, pregnant and lactating women from across the country.

“The country has 113 metric tons of food in reserve. However nearly 380 metric tone of food is needed to fill the gap,” said Mitiku.

He added with more aid expected to land in the upcoming few weeks, the Ethiopian government has received 44 percent of the total appeal made for aid, made to the international community. The UK government has also provided US$61 million of aid.

(ST)

The U.S. government aid arm is looking for ways to help the hungry on Ethiopia’s side of a three-country drought crisis that is also devastating communities in Kenya and Somalia.

“We are concerned that we are underestimating the situation, especially in the southern provinces,” Jason Frasier, mission director of USAID in Ethiopia, said of that country’s food crisis.

Ethiopia’s state minister of agriculture, Mitiku Kassa, said Monday that nearly $400 million is needed
Mariam Abucar Omar plays with her son Abdirahman Abdullahi, 7 months, at a Doctors Without Borders hospital where he is receiving treatment for severe malnutrition, in Dagahaley Camp outside Dadaab, Kenya, Monday, July 11, 2011. U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster” in the world, after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. ((AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell))
to fill the country’s food gap. He said Ethiopia needs to distribute 380 metric tons of food.

A drought centered in the triangle where Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia meet has sent tens of thousands of people pouring into refugee camps in search of food. The three-way border is a nomadic region where families heavily depend on the health of their livestock.

Uganda and Djibouti have also been hit. The World Food Program said it expects 10 million people in the Horn of Africa to require food aid.

The head of the U.N. agency for refugees said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster” in the world.

Somalis are walking for days or weeks to reach camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The young and the
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old are dying en route. Families have little food or money after herds of cattle, goats and camels were wiped out after successive seasons of no rains hit the war-ravaged country.

Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, located in northeast Kenya, is seeing thousands of new arrivals daily. More than 380,000 people already live in the camps.

“I must say that I visited many refugee camps in the world. I have never seen people coming in such a desperate situation,” the head of the
A young Somali boy being treated for malnutrition drinks therapeutic milk at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, Monday, July 11, 2011. U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the “worst humanitarian disaster” in the world, after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. ((AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell))
U.N. refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, said Sunday after seeing new arrivals in Dadaab.

Faduma Sakow Abdullahi, a Somali mother, said her husband died after drinking contaminated water, and that two children died on the way to Dadaab from hunger and exhaustion. Others in need begged for help but she had none to give.

“My journey was like a trip to hell. I have seen and experienced a lot of sufferings on my way to Kenya,” Abdullahi said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I reached a stage in which I didn’t care about whether I die or live.”

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Associated Press reporter Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Dadaab, Kenya contributed to this report.

Temesgen started his letter by greeting the PM in Tigrigna language. “I heard that one of the reasons you became a gorilla fighter at a young age is claiming your right to use your language was violated. But do you really believe language has any relation to blood and bone as you like to put it than merely a tool for communicate?” he asked.

“I understand you are a busy man with endless meetings, campaigns, issuing laws and policies, making sure the watchdog organizations for your opponents are functioning according to plan, worrying about terrorism and recently the tension between South and North Sudan. But I beg for a few minutes of your time to hear me out,” he wrote. “It’s been 20 years since you assumed power promising that you will make sure every Ethiopian will eat three times a day. Now, after two decades, Ethiopians are starved than ever before. Even ETV, a station under your control, did a program recently reporting children in Addis Ababa are fainting in a classroom because of hunger. Considering you have children of your own, I believe you recognize how sad this news can be for the country.”

He also claims that high unemployment is making Ethiopian youth hopeless and many are taking illegal immigration as a solution. “This young people know how dangerous and life threatening it is to try to cross borders, but they are doing it anyway. This should indicate the frustration this generation is facing today.”

“We have witnessed several roads and buildings being constructed and we have few wealthy who drive Hammer in front of starved children. However, millions are still waiting for a better price for cooking oil and sugar. You like it or not, today, we are more concerned about daily meal than your terrorism apprehension. We spend the night sleepless worrying we might die with starvation than Al-Qaeda blowing our town.”

“Can you imagine living in a country where talking about unemployment, lack of quality education, or any other issue that go against the government is considered as a shameful act and a crime.”

Temesgen is of the opinion that the PM never meets the people of Ethiopia. “If you think those who attend your popular meetings at the Millennium hall or may be your office are the people of Ethiopia, then you are probably wrong. Those people have no choice since they are members of your party for lots of reasons. I have never seen your opponents attend your meetings.”

He also questioned why the government chose silence in the UNDP recent report saying $8.5 Billion illicitly transferred from Ethiopia to developed countries in the last 20 years. “That money could have built the Millennium Dam and many other projects. That money is ours and the least the government could have done is show some concern and find ways to get it back. Why did the government chose silence?” he questioned.

Temesgen also criticized the government recent plan to buy tanks from Ukraine. “We are paying tax for every little thing we buy and for minor services we receive,” he wrote.

Continuing his critique, Temesgen wrote the only logical thing for the PM to do is to resign peacefully. “Tunisian Ben Ali and Egyptian Hosni Mubareke didn’t get this chance. We Ethiopians have a say that when there is a gossip about someone you should hear it for your own sake.”

Temesgen talked about the high cost of life, unemployment, and loss of nationalism feelings among the youth, lack of accountability for public officials, and the confusing tax system. He also condemns the huge economic gap between the few extremely rich and the majority very poor and the terrorism law that gave wide discretion to government officials to label anyone a terrorist. Temesgen also criticized the ‘elections’ that he says remains to be a trouble for the country. He demanded that the Election Board be dissolved and replaced by an independent body. He also talked about the two journalists arrested recently. One of them is a columnist for his newspaper, Fithe. Temesgen requested explanation for her arrest.

Blaming almost all problems on the PM, Temesgen writes: “All our problems will never get a solution as long as you remain in power. So, please for the sake of the country resign peacefully,” he concluded.

On Friday, Fithe, a relatively unpopular newspapers, was hugely read and probably sold in enormous numbers because of this article, which ten years ago might have passed as just another critical editorial, but no more, as times have changed.

From those who read the article, Ezega.com received three different reactions. Some said journalists like Temesgen are what this country desperately needs and it is better to say what one feels and bear the consequences. Others considered the article insignificant since the officials might not even read it, and even if they do, the only one who will suffer any harm is the writer himself and called Temesgen brave, if a bit reckless. The third opinion came from those who believe Meles Zenawi is the best leader this country ever had. They say he is doing the best he can for this country and he does not deserve such criticism.

With an estimated 3.2 million Ethiopians in need of emergency aid, the International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, pledged £38m towards tackling the problem. Some 329,000 malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers will also receive treatment.

“Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains,” Mr Mitchell said. “Britain is acting quickly and decisively in Ethiopia to stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe. We will provide vital food to help 1.3 million people through the next three months.

“For the response to be effective, we need the most up-to-date, accurate information on the level of need in Ethiopia. The country has made great strides in many areas over the past 30 years and this emergency relief will help to ensure that these gains are not eroded.”

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopia’s hungry face starvation in the next three months, the driest period of the year in the country, and the UN has called for international aid across the Horn of Africa, where some areas are suffering the worst drought since the 1950s.

Britain’s aid is only a fraction of the amount needed to tackle the problem, but the pledge was welcomed by charities and aid workers.

“The money cannot come soon enough,” said Oxfam’s humanitarian director, Jane Cocking. “There are already critical and life-threatening food shortages in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa region.

“Two successive poor rains have left millions of people struggling to get food as hundreds of thousands of livestock have died and crops have failed. Other donors now need to follow suit and increase funding before it is too late.”
source=http://www.dfid.gov.uk

3.2 million Ethiopians, mostly in the South and South Easter part of country, are facing severe food shortage, according to figures from the United Nations and aid agencies. The UK government has pledged £38 million, enough to feed 1.3 million people. The disaster affecting the Horn of Africa is described by aid agencies as one of the worst drought ever seen in the region in over 60 years. 10 million people in the region are facing severe hunger including Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Some warn that famine could follow soon unless aid arrives urgently.

The disaster was a lead story on BBC World Service on Sunday, several British media and others had extensive coverage of the looming crisis. But the state media in Ethiopia and Walta, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, are silent on the story. The TPLF government has been in power for over 20 years now in Ethiopia and like its predecessor, it has failed miserably to feed its own people. The state media in Ethiopia is notorious for media blackout of stories it deems will portray the government in a negative light.

The starvation and the secrecy surround it by the government exactly mirrors what the military dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemariaum used to do. After 20 years of rule under TPLF government, Ethiopia is still unable to feed itself.

By Tedla Asfaw

I watched Meles Zenawi’s one hour video of economics of importing, oil, sugar and wheat in Ethiopia. Wait a minute, Ethiopia can not produce sugar, oil and wheat ?. I am not talking about petroleum here I mean oil for food. As far as I am concerned even during Derg time, oil and sugar were produced in Ethiopia. In fact Ethiopians who studied in the then Soviet Union told me that they saw packets of “Wonji Sugar” with elephant mark produced in Wonji, Ethiopia in Russian markets. However, when they told their classmates about being the product of Ethiopia no one believed them. Then high tech product maybe ?

When it comes to oil, I still remember going to nearby distributors that were selling sesame oil produced in Ethiopia. What happen now in Meles Zenawi led Ethiopia ? Those who went for a short visit to Ethiopia informed us that they found stores filled with foreign oil and sugar among many imported food products. I wonder who buys them ? We know a litre of edible oil here in USA at present is on average less than three dollar, one kg of sugar is less than two dollar, a kg of whole wheat more than two dollar.

Poor Ethiopia is now wasting its foreign currencies on buying sugar, oil and wheat on world market as we all know all these items were produced in our country before TPLF took over twenty yeas ago. On this week as TPLF celebrates its 20 years of rule Ethiopians are still talking about how and where to get basic food items. Lines for basic food items is now a national pastime for Ethiopians. I did not forget chewing “Chat”.I suggest “Chat” to be considered in Ethiopia’s Commodity Exchange to bring much needed revenue for the government. If it is exported like lentils we will have foreign currency flight then.

Mind you this discussion for the majority of our people is meaningless. Because practically they can not afford to buy imported sugar, oil and wheat . Meles Zenawi on his one hour lecture for business community told merchants to distribute these products with “reasonable price”. The importer is the “government” most likely the EFFORT babies.

Ethiopia’s economy is now in total disaster. The proof for that is, it can not even feed its own people. Talk about manufacturing based on homegrown capital which is currently diverted to service sector for which the business community is accused for tax evasion and other crimes is absurd. The manufacturing sector is under the control of TPLF owned EFFORT and Sheik Al Amoudi of Saudi Arabia.The blame for capital not flowing to manufacturing sector is these two dinosaurs beside lack of transparency and rule of law.

The small business community in service sector is taking the example of TPLF’s business empire, EFFORT. EFFORT totally control most of the manufacturing and service center of Ethiopia’s economy. The book of EFFORT is closed for public and even to the people of Tigray in whose name it operates. Where does the the profit from EFFORT goes ?

According to UNDP study 8.4 billion dollar went out of Ethiopia illegally in the last two decades. If you subtract the 2 billion dollar Meles alleged went out of real state developers he should at least admit the “6.4 billion” unaccounted belongs to EFFORT. In a country where there is no free press and independent judiciary no investigation can be carried out to find the truth. It seems to me that the 2 billion dollar “income” from real state business is a well designed hypothesis forwarded by Meles Zenawi to suggest that “we” are all here together on the business of “fraud”.

The bottom line is this, Ethiopian economy is driven not by visionaries to build the country and to alleviate from deep poverty our country has been known for many generations. We all know China brought more than 200 million people out of poverty since it has become the manufacturing capital of the world in the last two decades alone. What did TPLF did in the last two decades ?

TPLF failed in the last twenty years managing our economy. The so called “Yelemate Mengiste” a Developmental State is now officially named “Asmechi Mengste”, meaning Importing State. We might add to that Selling State which is in business of leasing up to 6 million hectares for foreign land grabbers on a dollar per hectare. Where is the book for all to see ?

Ethiopia’s economy is so stupid that it is only a matter of time before it follows the Ziad Bares fate Meles quoted many times on his lecture. Yes many of Somali merchants who benefited from Ziad ruled Somalia are now in Dubai. I am sure many of TPLF connected business people have home there too.

Meles Zenawi has confessed that his regime failed to bring bread and butter to our people. The high rises many of TPLF supporters see, we all see and touch have not changed the lives of millions even in Addis Ababa who go to bed every night hungry. The good advice I will give to Meles Zenawi is to step down this week after he makes a speech for his supporters on their 20 year of unfulfilled promises. Let him be the first ruler in Ethiopia to give power peacefully, why not ?

Moreover, funding shortfalls, drought and conflict could further increase the number of people needing humanitarian aid in the region from an estimated 8.75 million people.

Peter Smerdon, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Kenya, told IRIN on 18 May: “The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the Horn is 8.75 million; some of them get food aid from governments and other aid organizations. At least six million people need food assistance from WFP but this number could increase if the current rains are poor or below average.”

According to Smerdon, by early May, about halfway through the rainy season, rainfall was well below average in most of the Horn, ranging from 5 to 50 percent of normal rates, and well below forecasts.

Funding shortfalls

Of particular concern, he said, were areas of southern and southeastern Ethiopia.

“Amid growing concern about the impact of drought in the southern and southeastern pastoralist areas, many of WFP’s food assistance activities in Ethiopia face significant funding shortfalls,” Smerdon said.

The agency said it was assisting 4.3 million people in Ethiopia.

In Somalia, WFP faces a 70 percent shortfall from May through October and urgently needs contributions of US$53 million to feed one million people in accessible areas for the next six months.

In Kenya, Smerdon said, WFP has a 50 percent funding shortfall of $47 million needed to provide food aid for the next six months to 1.7 million people.

In an April food security report Kenya’s Agriculture Ministry said the national stock of maize – the country’s staple – is expected to be about 5.9 million 90kg bags by the end of July, adequately covering only 1.7 months beginning in August.

The April–September 2011 Food Security Outlook by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) forecast that most households in the hard-hit pastoral areas would become extremely food insecure and many more livestock would die.

According to WFP, the Horn of Africa drought, which began with the failure of the short rains in December 2010, is the first since a two-year regional drought in 2007-2009 that saw the number of people needing humanitarian assistance in the region rise to more than 20 million.

Conflict could further increase the number of people requiring help. In early May, dozens of people were killed and others displaced when violence broke out on the Ethiopia-Kenya border between two communities over rising food prices.

The fighting between the Turkana community of Kenya and the Merille of Ethiopia, local media reported, reflected a broader pattern of inter-ethnic conflict resulting from food scarcity and persistent drought.

On 15 May, international NGO CARE called for more attention to severe food insecurity in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, saying almost eight million people in these countries needed emergency aid.

“Chronic vulnerability, poverty, social injustice and climate change are all responsible for recurring food insecurity in the Horn of Africa,” Mohamed Khaled, CARE’s regional emergency coordinator for East Africa, said in a statement. “On top of that, a significant increase in food and fuel prices has worsened the current situation.

“In Kenya, for example, the price of maize, a staple food, has increased over 27 percent during the last three months. Sufficient attention is needed now to prevent further loss of lives and livelihoods. At the same time, the underlying reasons need to be tackled to break the recurring cycles that have persisted in recent years.”

Photo: Jamal Osman/IRIN
Conflict could further increase the number of people requiring help (file photo)
Measures taken

Djibouti and Somalia have declared the drought situation a national disaster while the Ethiopian government revised its humanitarian requirements document in April 2011 to reflect the growing needs and mobilize a scale-up of humanitarian response.

Khaled said: “While governments of the affected countries have already started interventions, short- and long-term international assistance is needed to help address critical needs but also underlying structural causes and chronic vulnerabilities. What is needed is a set of interventions which strengthens people’s own resilience capacity and coping mechanisms to survive such severe conditions while at the same time responding to their current humanitarian needs and protecting their livelihoods. It is crucial that people can feed themselves through their own means instead of being dependent on food distributions.”

Somalia

Somalia’s situation is dire as conflict continues. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Security, Nutrition and Analysis Unit (FSNAU), some 2.4 million Somalis are in food crisis, representing 32 percent of the population.

The effects of the ongoing drought, deteriorating purchasing power, rampant conflict and limited humanitarian space continue to aggravate the situation in most parts of the country, FSNAU said in an April update.

Theme (s): Aid Policy, Early Warning, Food Security,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

The regional leaders must make it clear to Khartoum and Juba that full implementation of the Sudanese peace deal is synonymous with peace in the region.

Already, there is growing tension between leaders of the National Congress Party and Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement over Abyei, which could escalate into violent confrontation between security forces and other armed proxies from North and South Sudan.

Recently both North and South deployed forces in and around Abyei in breach of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The situation has been made worse by the recent declaration by President Omar al-Bashir that Khartoum will not recognise the independence of the south id Juba continues to lay claim to Abyei.

That is why regional leaders should send unequivocal message to President Bashir that any breaches of the CPA will a recipe for instability in the region.

They must not allow Khartoum to blackmail the region with the threat of war.

As things stand, the two sides are yet to start negotiations on the post-referendum issues that are intended to ensure that Sudan remains peaceful after July 9.

The pending issues include the North-South border, the Abyei referendum, citizenship, oil revenue, external debt and popular consultation in Southern Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan.

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Some 1.4 million refugees have been forced to cross national borders while 4 million others are displaced within their home countries.

Droughts have also stricken about 8.8 million East Africans, sowing hunger and homelessness, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.

OCHA’s figures covered the month of March. It said the totals on east Africa showed an 8 per cent increase in refugees over the previous six months, but a 3 per cent decrease in “internally displaced persons” who have not crossed a national border.

Ethiopia was most affected, with 3.2 million people now in need of humanitarian aid. In Somalia more than 50,000 people were displaced by a combination of armed conflict and natural disasters during March, OCHA said.

The countries monitored were Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, and Congo.

Worrisome trends included an increase of more than 50,000 refugees in Kenya and 19,000 fleeing warfare in Somalia, and drought there from the 2010 La Nina weather pattern.

Increased attacks on civilians in eastern Congo by the Lord’s Resistance Army, and clashes in Somalia between the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab and African Union peacekeepers and the nominal government in Mogadishu partly drove the increase in refugees, OCHA said.

Ethiopia’s emergency relief agency and international aid groups were caught off guard by how quickly conditions deteriorated as rains failed over the past six months.

As recently as February, Ethiopia’s appeal to humanitarian agencies for food aid covered 2.8 million people, a sharp decline from recent years. But by April, as grazing lands dried up in pastoral areas over a wide swath of Eastern Africa, the appeal was revised to include an additional 400,000 Ethiopians.

This is on top of a separate supplementary feeding program that covers an additional 8 million people.

Fresh rains over the past week have helped, but a follow-up assessment now underway is expected to lead to a further increase.

The latest report from the U.S. government funded FEWSNET, or Famine Early Warning System Network, says food insecurity has reached the “moderate to extreme” stage in some regions. It warns that existing assistance programs will not be able to handle “expected food deficits and high malnutrition.”

The shortages are forcing Ethiopia to curtail distribution in all but the hardest-hit regions of two of the four items contained in a food basket designed to help families stave off malnutrition. As a third round of distribution begins, disaster relief agency spokesman Akloweg Nigatu says supplies of pulses (dry beans and peas) and high-nutrition Corn-Soya Blend are critically low.

“Now we [are] just distributing one-third less pulses for the third round, and we [are] not able to provide CSB, Corn Soya Blend because we are short of it, sorely depleted. But we are trying to get this limited resource by asking our partners,” he said.

The United States and the U.N. World Food Program are among the main partners, or providers of nutritional assistance. But the WFP relief and refugee section chief in Ethiopia, Giammichele De Maio, says it can take months from the time an appeal is made until the food arrives.

“It usually takes an average lead-time of four, five months to get the food in the country, and that’s when we are actually able to distribute it to the beneficiaries. The latest request has come in April. There was a previous request in February, indeed several contributions are on their way, but still there are huge shortfalls in the relief pipeline currently,” he said.

US AID director for Ethiopia Thomas Staal says the United States is working urgently on a project to produce Corn Soya Blend in Ethiopia to meet domestic needs. In the meantime, he says a search is on for stocks of pulses that can be quickly purchased from other regions and moved to the Horn of Africa. “That we have to definitely import and we’re working with other donors to provide funding to WFP to import additional pulse. So we’re working with those donors, WFP and the government to see if we can’t move food around in the short term while in the longer term getting additional commodities,” he said.

Agencies working in southern and southeastern Ethiopia say the drought has claimed the lives of countless thousands of livestock on which the region’s economy depends.

Aid workers say the effects of the drought have been made worse by steep increases in food costs worldwide. Ethiopia’s Central Statistics Agency this week reported a nearly 30-percent increase in the inflation rate in April from the previous year, driven mostly by a 32-percent jump in food prices.

It appears self-evident that having not enough food not only affects your growth and health, but also your performance at school. Strangely enough, nobody ever investigated the actual effects of food scarcity on the educational career of children in a developing country. Scientists of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, together with colleagues from Jimma University (Ethiopia) and Brown University (USA), followed 2084 Ethiopian youngsters between 13 and 17 for two years. Ethiopia regularly is affected by food shortage, so the researchers could compare children with and without food insecurity. They measured absenteeism and noted the grade the children attained in the year after the hungry period.

One in three food insecure children skipped school for one or more days, compared to one in five of their food secure peers. In other words: they stayed away 1.8 times more often. Not to play truant, but mostly to help their parents in obtaining food or money.

Food insecure children also clearly showed a lower educational attainment. In the period under observation, one in four food insecure children finished primary school (grade 8), against one in three children without food problems.

This kind of consequences of a food insecure period stay with you for years, or even for life.

The researchers considered a teenager as ‘food insecure’ when in the last three months he or she had worried about having enough food, had to reduce food intake or go without eating (because of shortage of food or money), or had to beg for food. They fear the problem will get worse, because of mounting food prices.