Ethiopia’s New Face of Famine
As a child of the 80’s when the word famine is mentioned I can distinctively hear my mother telling me to ear my entire plate of my despised broccoli, because “there are starving children in Ethiopia”. I know wonder if more than 20 years later I will soon find myself uttering those same words at my next meal.
Images of small lifeless children with hallow eyes being weighed in harness scales like the bags of grain they so desperatly need, flood ones mind. Once again the children of Ethiopia are starving on a grand scale, and the images of the 1980’s haven’t changed, we only see them less. While they may not be suffering on the immense scale of the 80’s, and be drawing the critical mass cries of support from the international community to bring forth the calls of Live Aid and Band Aid. The famine reached its peak with the drought of 1984, which at its height took more than a million lives. Sadly Ethiopia historically and continually remains one of the world’s most starved nations. The current plight of famine and malnutrition in Ethiopia, which is caused in part by; drought, various natural plagues, a substantial population increase, and the armed conflict in the Somali region; has been compounded by global inflation which has doubled the price of food.
Regardless of the historical famines, the issue today cannot be disregarded as according to UNICEF estimates some 6 million children under five may be at risk of malnutrition in Ethiopia. While Ethiopia became the face of famine for a generation, it is but one country struggling to provide the basic necessities for millions of men, women and children. As sadly the children of Ethiopia are not alone, the exact number of children across the globe who are severely malnourished and undernourished is unknown, however according to the FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006 report, there are some 854 million people around the globe who do not have enough to eat. The fight against famine is global and regardless of what state the crisis is in, millions of children are in critical need of food aid.
According to the Ethiopian government there are 75,000 children suffering from severe malnourishment across the country. At current it is estimated that some 7 million Ethiopians rely on food aid for survival, and while food aid it obviously not new, it is only a band aid to a larger problem. The crisis in Ethiopia, which is significantly affected by the low levels of investment in food deficit areas and skyrocketing food prices, has left an imbalance in the population. As mentioned in Choosing Who to Save, this is causing an uneven balance of the country’s population, leaving urban Ethiopians to benefit at the cost of their rural counterparts.
What can be done to save the children in Ethiopia from famine? The question still lingers on the tounges of many in the international community, but the answer has yet to be found.