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Africa鈥檚 New Nightmare.
Mike Thomson reports from Ethiopia.
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The East-African country of Ethiopia is facing a famine of such catastrophic proportions that it could be even worse than the crisis of 1984 which led to Bob Geldof鈥檚 Band Aid appeal.
Current predictions by the Ethiopian Government suggest that up to 15 million people could soon be facing starvation because of the severe drought that has destroyed the crops in many parts of the country.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the United Nations鈥 World Food Programme have called for a massive international relief operation that could be the largest ever mounted. As much as 200 million tons of food aid may be needed.
Few people could forget the horrific scenes that appeared on our television screens during the 1984-85 famine. The immense suffering of millions of Ethiopians inspired people around the world to contribute to the Band Aid and Live Aid appeals.
But in an exclusive interview for the Today programme, Mr Zenawi told me that his country was now facing an even more dreadful situation.
鈥淭he disaster we had in 1984 to 85: the number of people involved was roughly a third to one half of the number of people involved now.
鈥淪o if that was a nightmare, this will be too ghastly too contemplate.鈥
While appealing for food aid, Mr Zenawi readily admitted that his government could have done more to avert such a crisis by improving the country鈥檚 water storage and irrigation systems. But this, he claimed, was money that Ethiopia does not have.
Now lives will be lost unless wealthy nations are prepared to act on a larger scale than ever before.
To see the true extent of the crisis I travelled to the village of Dir Fakar, 200 km south of the capital Addis Ababa.
At the time of my visit the village鈥檚 communal pond should have been a deep pool of water where livestock could drink. But instead it was a parched dustbowl.
Beneath my feet huge cracks scarred the landscape like grotesque crazy paving while all around almost everything was slowly dying.
In the surrounding fields all that one could see were oceans of lifeless maize and wheat stalks, barely recognisable as crops.
The annual short rains had failed and the long rains arrived too late to save the crops.
A local farmer Hussein Muhammad rubbed two sheaves of wheat together to show me how the husks turned to dust in his hand.
鈥淲e have never had this type of experience in our lives,鈥 he said. 鈥淎s you can see the crop has nothing inside it. I am going to disappear from this place unless food aid arrives soon.鈥
In previous droughts the locals have got by by selling livestock, but now the animals are dying before they can be sold.
All of which leaves mothers like 25-year-old Rahima Fako, who has four children, in a desperate situation.
鈥淒ue to rain shortage we lost everything that we planted. There is nothing in the fields to harvest and our animals are dead,鈥 she said.
I asked her what she fed to her children. 鈥淣othing! I have nothing to give them. I don鈥檛 know what I am going to feed them.鈥
Sitting on a rusty can a few yards away, 8-year-old Fayo Hadji was drawing shapes in the dust with a small stone. A fly landed just under his left eye, but Fayo seemed resigned to its presence, just like he appeared to be resigned to a terrible fate.
鈥淚 know I am going to die and so are my brothers and sisters because we are all so hungry,鈥 he told me in a matter-of-fact way.
Appalled, I asked if he really believed he was going to die?
鈥渊别蝉.鈥
Fayo said he had lost hope as his parents鈥 cattle had died and their crops had failed so they had nothing to feed him.
鈥淚 would prefer to die rather than keeping waiting for food. I prefer to die,鈥 he said.
At the health centre in the nearby town of Dera there was further evidence of the terrible toll that the drought is taking.
Nurse Senait Alemagenu said that six out of 10 babies and children brought to her were suffering from severe malnourishment. She said that often she had no food or medicine to give them and that she had no option but to turn people away knowing they were going off to die.
Some help is arriving. But Georgia Shaver, the World Food Programme鈥檚 Director in Ethiopia, says that so far it鈥檚 just a trickle in comparison with what is needed.
In her office in Addis Ababa, she laid out the scale of the problem in stark terms.
鈥淚n Southern Africa there are 10 to 14 million people needing food aid across six countries. In Ethiopia we could have the same number in just one country.
鈥淭he international effort that will be required to meet the food resources alone is enormous.鈥
She added: 鈥淲e need the resources today so that we can prevent a deterioration of the situation. We don鈥檛 need the resources six months from now when we see terrible images on the television.鈥
Back in Dera some are seeking help from higher powers. At the Ousman Ben Afan Mosque, the Imam, Sheik Abdullah Mahmoud told me: 鈥淲e pray day and night, every day, to get rain. So many people are dying and it鈥檚 very difficult for me to explain how difficult the situation is.鈥
Making an appeal for the international community to send food aid to Ethiopians, he said that this drought was much worse than those in the past.
鈥淭he livestock has died and people don鈥檛 have any reserves. It鈥檚 so serious that it鈥檚 beyond our capacity. So the only thing we can do is pray and wait for assistance.鈥
But time is fast running out for the people here. For many, hope has already gone, disappearing in dusty sacks slung over old donkeys that stumble and sway on the roads to Ethiopia鈥檚 already over-burdened towns and cities.
Others choose to stay peering intently through the swirling dust-clouds that choke the air. None work, few eat, whole families just stare out waiting for help that may never come.
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Read a transcript of our webchat with the World Food Programme's Georgia Shaver and Today's Mike Thomson (11/11/02). |
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Drought has turned fields into a dustbowl |
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Some aid is trickling in from abroad |
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The drought is beyond the community's capacity to cope |
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Muslims pray for rain at Dera |
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Farmer Hussein Mohammad shows Mike how the crop has failed |
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Rahima Fako has nothing to feed her four children |
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Fayo Hadji, 8, says he expects to starve to death |
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Nurse Senait Alemagenu says she has to send many patients away to die |
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