Ethiopia's Famine Threat Increases

Aid agencies are mounting a massive effort to help millions of people in the Horn of Africa who are suffering from three consecutive years of drought. But food can't reach the arid reaches of the region fast enough, and hundreds of people--mostly children--already are dying each day.

An estimated six children die of drought-related conditions daily in Ethiopia, according to one estimate. Many of them have collapsed from disease or dehydration after walking for days with their families in search of nourishment. Thousands are fleeing remote villages where wells have dried up and agencies have yet to establish food stations.

Families who arrive in larger towns looking for food have told the media stories about watching their young die one by one. Other children, already too weak from their journey, die right before the eyes relief officials who are trying to help them.

"The condition of the children is very serious," Ahmed Ibrahim Hussein of the Ogaden Welfare Society told CNN. "Most of them are malnourished, suffering from measles and other disease, already weakened, and now they have nothing to eat and most of them are dying."

Although some 400 people died in Ethiopia's Gode region last month, the situation has yet to reach the scale of a famine, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the deaths have occurred from drought-related illnesses, such as measles, diarrhea, and pneumonia.

But the United Nations (U.N.) warns that as many as 16 million people are at risk of starvation in 10 countries across East and central Africa, from Burundi to Eritrea on the Red Sea. The crisis is most severe in Ethiopia's perpetually dry Ogaden region, where wells have gone dry, crops have withered, and the skeletons of cattle and sheep lay in barren fields. In January, camels in Ogaden stopped lactating, leaving children without milk, a staple in the impoverished nation.

Some Ethiopians are fortunate enough to have access to feeding centers, which supply rehydration treatments and high protein biscuits. Relief agencies are struggling to set up more centers in remote regions before residents migrate elsewhere for food. Sometimes, lack of clean drinking water, which is needed to mix the children's food into gruel, makes it impossible for centers to be stationed in some areas.

"We will help people work through this terrible disaster," said Catherine Bertini, head of the World Food Program (WFP) and U.N. special envoy to the Horn of Africa. "We are looking at setting up food centers in other communities so people do not need to gather in one place."

The Ethiopian government has made a plea for 800,000 tons of food for 8 million people this year. But those numbers will rise if the harvest doesn't come to bear in June, and this year's lack of rainfall has officials expecting the crop to fail.

Aid Agencies Struggle to Avert Famine
As agencies scramble to prevent more deaths, criticism has mounted over who is to blame for what the Ethiopian government has characterized as a slow response. The European Union and United Nations claim that a border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea has exacerbated the humanitarian situation, making it difficult for agencies to deliver goods without endangering their lives to the fighting. The Ethiopian government, who says the war has not hampered relief deliveries, has blamed distribution problems on the donor countries, saying they responded to its pleas for help too late.

Relief agencies are desperately trying to secure routes to areas that have yet to receive aid. But poor road conditions and a limited number of ports make the task nearly impossible. Landlocked Ethiopia has boycotted Eritrea's port of Assab since a border war broke out in 1988--just five years after Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia. The port is the only one with road connections to some of the affected areas. Officials also worry that as the needs grow, the Somali ports currently being used to deliver food aid will lack the necessary capacity.

Despite the obstacles, WFP, other relief agencies, and world governments are speeding deliveries of food to the parched region. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has begun a project to deliver a total of at least 4,512 tons of aid to the region over the next two months. The European Union, United States, and Canada have pledged millions of dollars to assist in the relief efforts.

Although initial plans call for food assistance to continue until the end of June, Africa's drought-stricken region may need help for a much longer period, officials warn. "The food security situation in the Horn of Africa has the potential to become much worse and vastly outstrip available WFP resources during the next year, particularly if forecasts of below average rainfall and continued drought conditions in some areas are accurate and insecurity in the Horn increases," WFP said in a recent report.

Despite the potential magnitude of the drought, officials say the death toll is unlikely to reach the proportions it did in 1984-85 when 1 million people starved to death. Since then, early warning systems were put in place to monitor weather patterns and agricultural production.

Still, the U.N. has said that a famine can only be averted with more outside assistance. "I urge those with the capacity to give, to give generously so that we can save lives," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters in Rome. "It is not too late to save lives if we respond at this point."