EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.N. and international media are not accurately reporting about the real causes for the food shortage in Ethiopia. The main problem is mismanagement of resources. Just to mention two examples: 1) Massive quantities of food bought at below market prices is being stored in warehouses through out the Tigray region, the base of the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne), for use by supporters of the regime, while other regions, particularly the south, are suffering. 2) The money that is used to finance the expensive and senseless war in Somalia could have been used to help farmers in drought affected areas to use irrigation. Ethiopia is blessed with numerous rivers. Farmers do not have to rely on rain alone. Egypt’s only source of water to grow crops, for example, is the river that is originating in Ethiopia — not rain. So why are we not hearing about famine in Egypt caused by lack of rain? Solution: Better government.
(BBC) The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF is warning that six million Ethiopian children are at risk of acute malnutrition because of a lack of seasonal rain.
Already, more than 60,000 children in just two of Ethiopia’s regions are in the most severe condition, requiring immediate specialist feeding to survive.
The situation across the rest of the country is still being assessed.
Aid agencies have fresh pictures showing listless children with distended stomachs – the telltale signs of acute malnutrition.
“In just one clinic, we have more than 250 children, who will only survive with immediate treatment,” says David Noguera, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres emergency unit.
Dr Noguera says the situation is absolutely alarming and a massive effort is needed to turn it around.