Global Policy Forum

By Penny Dale

With the international donor community focusing its efforts on the looming famine across much of Southern Africa, the needs of millions of drought-hit Ethiopian farmers facing severe hunger could be overlooked, local aid workers are warning.

International donors may not respond to Ethiopia's worsening food crisis in time to avert a humanitarian disaster because they are busy channeling resources into Southern Africa, where 12 million people are at risk of starvation, according to an agency based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa which helps orphaned children, women, and other vulnerable groups.

"There is a real fear here in Ethiopia that the attention of donors is so focused on the unfolding food crisis in Southern Africa that they will forget that millions of Ethiopians are also facing severe food shortages," a spokesperson for Fatumatu Zehara Aid Organization told OneWorld Monday.

The statement from Fatumatu comes after a separate warning from the World Food Programme (WFP) last week that as many as four million people in the Horn of Africa, where Ethiopia is located, are quickly running out of food in the wake of two consecutive years of drought.

Existing WFP emergency food stocks for Ethiopia, which stand at about 115 million tons of cereal, may run out over the next two months unless the international community responds immediately with "substantial amounts" of extra food, the United Nations ( news - web sites) agency warned.

Farmers and pastoralists in the worst-hit region of Afar, in the arid north of the country, are in "dire need" of immediate food aid. At least one third of Afar's 1.2 million population--who grow small amounts of the basic cereal crop tef but depend mainly on livestock--will need support until the end of the year, said WFP.

Water sources, such as wells, have dried out, cattle-grazing lands have been depleted, and the carcasses of dead animals now litter the Afar landscape after a complete failure of the short "Sugum" rains, which usually fall between February and April.

The longer "Karma" rains, which are supposed to last for three months from July, have yet to start, prompting mass migration to neighboring regions of Afar as pastoralists search for fresh pastures and new water sources, according to WFP.

Areas surrounding Afar--including parts of the Oromiya lowlands and the northern part of the Somali region--have also been hit by drought and have seen fighting between rival groups over scarce water resources, according to a July report published by the UN's Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia.

Other areas requiring extra food aid due to the failure of rains are southern parts of the country, including several areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region.

Last week's call for increased food relief--following an assessment by WFP, and other agencies, of the agricultural impact of the dry weather during June and July--echoes other urgent appeals for drought-prone Ethiopia over the last 20 years which have led to some of the most high-profile campaigns to raise awareness and money for the victims of famine.

Ethiopia's 1984-1985 famine, described by eyewitness as "biblical," affected six million and left nearly one million dead. It was only after chilling television images of dying babies and emaciated children flooded into Western homes that major relief efforts began.

The massive 'Live Aid' rock concert, held in London and watched on television by 1.4 billion people in 170 countries, raised US$45 million for famine relief in Ethiopia and other African countries, the largest amount of money raised by a single event.

But another famine two years ago, which threatened eight million people, failed to generate similar responses from either donors or the public due to fears that aid money would be used by the government of Ethiopia to buy weapons for its army, then embroiled in a two-year-long border war with Eritrea.

WFP is currently struggling to keep supplies of cereals flowing into the Southern African countries of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia. It has secured only 22 percent of the amount it needs to avert a disaster in the region, according to the latest reports from the UN Integrated Regional Information Network.

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