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Friday, March 18, 2016
Ethiopian PM Urges World: Don’t Forget Us
Ethiopia’s prime minister has urged the international community to increase its support towards the ‘Horn of Africa’ state as 10 million people face going hungry.
The country is currently in the midsts of its worst drought in around 50 years, exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern. Ethiopia has had three consecutive failed rainy seasons and there are fears it could be of a similar scale as the 1984 famine, in which hundreds of thousands of people died.
Hailemariam Desalegn, who came to power in 2012, told AP on Thursday that donor countries and international relief agencies should not neglect Ethiopia “despite all the other crises that are going on elsewhere in the world.” Desalegn claimed that Ethiopia is hosting 750,000 refugees—a third of which come from neighboring Somalia —and that not enough had been done so far. “The aid provided to us so far is very little and it often came very late. I urge organizations like UNICEF to come in if they think this is a worst case scenario. Just talking is not a solution,” said Desalegn.
Subscribe now - Free phone/tablet charger worth over $60The U.N. and the Ethiopian government are currently appealing for $1.4 billion in emergency food aid, though this is likely to be revised upwards, Reuters reported. It is the world’s third-largest humanitarian appeal behind those for Syria and Yemen. The U.S. has donated more than $532 million towards Ethiopia since October 2014, and Ethiopia itself has spent about $380 million on the crisis, AP reported.
As well as the drought, Ethiopia has had to contend with civil unrest among members of its largest ethnic group in recent months. Desalegn recently apologized for deaths resulting from anti-government protests in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, which have been ongoing since November 2015. Members of the Oromo ethnic group began protesting against plans to expand the capital Addis Ababa, which they feared would result in forced evictions from their land, and have clashed with Ethiopian security forces and hundreds of deaths.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Ethiopia plans new 2,000 MW dam in mist of famine: PM | Reuters
Ethiopia plans new 2,000 MW dam: PM
ADDIS ABABA |
Ethiopia, which plans to become a top regional electricity exporter, will soon launch a new 2,000 megawatt hydropower dam, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Thursday.
Under a new 2015-2020 development plan, Addis Ababa wants to raise output to 17,346 megawatts from a current capacity of just over 2,200 from hydropower, wind and geothermal sources.
"The launch of this new dam will be commenced soon," Hailemariam told parliament, without giving further details.Ethiopia's bid to tap several rivers for power generation is part of plans to boost manufacturing and industrialize its agrarian economy.
It already has an array of projects under construction, including the $4.1 billion Grand Renaissance Dam that will churn out 6,000 megawatts upon completion within the next five years, as well as a 1,800-megawatt Gilgel Gibe 3 Dam in its southern region.
But the country's power ambitions have caused disputes in the past. Egypt - solely dependent on the Nile - has expressed concern that the Renaissance Dam will reduce the river's flow. Both countries are currently locked in discussions over the project's technical details.
And rights groups in Kenya say that the Gibe 3 Dam, and a related irrigation scheme, could dramatically reduce the volume of water in its Lake Turkana.
Experts put Ethiopia's hydropower potential at about 45,000 megawatts and geothermal at 5,000, while its wind power potential is believed to be Africa's third-largest behind Egypt and Morocco.
Hailemariam said Ethiopia, which signed a $4 billion-deal with a U.S.-Icelandic firm in 2013 to a build a 1,000 megawatt geothermal plant which will be the country's first privately-run utility, was also in negotiations with international companies to build more power generating projects.
Once Ethiopia's grand plans are complete, it wants to export power to countries in North and southern Africa and beyond.
But poor rainy seasons that have left 10.2 million people requiring food aid in the country of 90 million have also had an adverse impact on existing dams, Hailemariam said.
Four hydropower plants generating a total of 675 megawatts were either producing "as low as 10 percent or nothing at all" owing to low water levels, he said.
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; editing by Edith Honan and Angus MacSwan)
Ethiopia Drought Threatens Famine - Top Stories -
Situation is bad, but not bad enough to grab media attention from other trouble spots, so funding is slow
Albert González Farran/UNAMID CC
With malnutrition growing and livestock dying, Ethiopians are praying that forecasts for rain prove true this year.
The El Nino weather system that struck Ethiopia last year left the East African country with no rain in either its spring or summer growing seasons. Subsequent crop failures left people scrambling for food and farmers without seed to plant. Families have been forced to take their children out of school so they walk further to fetch water or find other ways to earn money.
The northern provinces of Tigray and Afar are the worst affected areas hit, said Paul Banga, a lay missionary with Comboni Lay Mission Program. Even in the south, though conditions are reasonable, the last rainy season was below average.
International Orthodox Christian Charities reports that lack of rain during the country’s short but critical rainy season has led to a severe shortage of water and caused widespread crop failure and the death of more than 400,000 livestock.
“In a country where 85 percent of the population depend on rain-fed agriculture, when it doesn’t rain it’s a difficult time,” said Matt Davis, Catholic Relief Services’ country representative in Addis Ababa. “You see farmers losing their assets, [selling] off the few things that they have. … You see the effects of water tables in communities, where you see women and girls having to walk much further to find water for basic domestic use. You see families not having the ability to send kids to school because they’re out looking for water or other sustinence, so education is put aside.”
“I have been a missionary in Ethiopia for almost 10 years and this is the first time the country is dying of thirst,” Father Christopher Hartley told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. “As a result of the drought, there are many tribal struggles for access to the few remaining sources of water for people and livestock, while the crops are irreversibly disappearing, transforming this enormous landscape in a vast desert.”
“The El Nino particularly affected highland Ethiopia, which normally has more productive agricultural zones and higher populations,” Davis explained. “And the higher air temperatures meant the soil became very dry last year and unproductive throughout large swaths of the country.”
By January of this year, more than 10 million people — 10 percent of the population — needed food assistance, he said.
Abba Gebre Yohannes runs a Catholic college and trade school, as well as a parish, in Wukro, in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray. The drought meant no harvest last year in many of the villages from which students come. Parents could not pay tuition, and the students had to find jobs to support their families. So out of about 750 students, only 586 remain.
“I spoke to one man who said the whole village where he lives might move to another location,” said Seifu Tirfie, Ethiopia Country Representative for International Orthodox Christian Charities. “It’s not a nomadic place. They just can’t wait. Everything is dry. He said, ‘We don’t have anything for our cows. We can buy feed for them, but we’ll finish all our savings. We just won’t sit by and watch our animals die.'”
But, historically, an El Nino is followed by a year of normal rain patterns, and climatologists are saying this coming year should be normal, Davis said. “But most of Ethiopia won’t receive a harvest until September, so the relief effort will have to be maintained at least until then.
International charities are facing a challenge, however, as the situation is not bad enough to draw the attention of the media.
“We’re not on the radar. Largely, it’s the Middle East, Syria and the outflow of refugees to Europe that has been the attention grabber,” Davis said. “Because our systems and operations are much stronger than they used to be, we’re not seeing [starving children] on CNN, which is very good, but it’s a communications challenge to get out there to let people know there are some real needs in Ethiopia this year because of climactic forces, which have put a big strain on the country.”
The drought, he said, has not led to a famine, such as the one that devastated the country in the mid-1980s.
“This is not 1984 all over again,” Davis said. “The circumstances are similar, but the Ethiopian government has really stepped up and taken the lead on the relief operations. The infrastructure of the country is really a lot better than it was in the ’80s, and the international community — organizations like CRS, the United Nations and local civil society, the Church — are much stronger than it was in the ’80s and are able to provide basic services required for emergencies, as long as necessary funding comes into play this year.”
CRS is leading a US-funded consortium of relief agencies and the local church that is one of three food commodity pipelines into the country for relief. The other two are the government of Ethiopia and the World Food Program. The CRS-led consortium is feeding 2.6 million people.
The country is largely Orthodox, and Catholics are a minority, but the Catholic Church is the second-largest service provider after the government, in the areas of education and health. “Also in relif and development sector, the Catholic Church has a strong social service network set up here, a lot of strong infrastructure in various vicariates.”
For example, the Church has five drill rigs in various parts of the country and is “punching new wells and digging existing wells deeper,” Davis said.
While waiting and praying for rain, CRS is designing programs to get seed to farmers in a timely manner, “so they can prepare their land but then have something to plant when the rains come later this year.”
Monday, March 14, 2016
World overlooks Ethiopia drought crisis that is leaving millions hungry
FENTALE, Ethiopia — Sitting in the blistering sun as she cradles her 2-month-old baby, Genet Tamisat is one of hundreds of mothers waiting to have their children checked for malnutrition, as Ethiopia faces its worst drought in decades.
“I have nothing to eat at home. I can’t even buy maize by myself,” said Tamisat, who also has a 4-year-old son. “People can look at us and think we’re OK, but we are in great danger. We have nothing.”
Despite the crisis confronting Tamisat and millions of other Ethiopians lacking food and drinking water, a world caught up in strife is paying insufficient attention to their plight, because it is distracted by other urgent needs.
The government and the United Nations are trying to raise $1.4 billion to feed 10.2 million Ethiopians, but only half has come through so far, as the wars in Syria andYemen plus the migrant crisis dominate the news.
“Fundraising for this response has been very slow," said Chege Ngugi, national director of the charity ChildFund Ethiopia. "My priority is to support the efforts of the government of Ethiopia to save lives, but we’re not reaching everybody.”
A strong El Nino has blocked two consecutive rainy seasons that normally nourish crops that feed 85% of the country. The drought has forced the government to find additional food aid from the United States and other donors.
The U.S. Agency for International Development dispatched an response team to Ethiopia to provide emergency assistance that includes nearly $4 million in corn and wheat seeds for more than 200,000 families.
Here in the Oromia region , which includes central Ethiopia, the land is arid as far as the eye can see. Animal carcasses — some fresh, some old — are scattered across patches of dusty earth.
Humanitarian needs in this Horn of Africa country have tripled since the start of 2015 as the situation deteriorates.
Malnutrition rates in the worst-affected areas have surpassed 20% — higher than theWorld Health Organization ’s emergency threshold of 15%, said Challiss McDonough, regional spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Programme .
This year, the food program will help more than 2 million children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers suffering from moderate acute malnutrition.
The U.N.’s children’s fund, UNICEF , estimates that almost 500,000 children need treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
“Even with interventions, the situation is getting worse,” said Eyoel Lemma, who works at ChildFund Ethiopia in Fentale .
He said ChildFund, with help from the U.N., also provides supplementary food and malnutrition treatment to children under age 5. But that becomes a major difficulty as families migrate to different areas looking for water and pasture for their livestock, as well as to find jobs.
As a result, many people miss out on the food rationing programs.
One woman on the move is Haso Bultum, 27. After hours of walking in the sun across barren mountains, she reached a rural health care facility here in Fentale with her malnourished 9-month-old twins.
“It’s very hard. I’ve had no sleep, because we’re trying to find some food for our cattle,” she said. “To save ourselves we’re constantly moving.”
While Ethiopia has the fastest growing economy in the world and has lifted millions of citizens out of poverty, the reality is that 80% of Ethiopians are still dependent on agriculture.
McDonough from the World Fund Programme warned that her organization could run out of food within two months.
“We have been calling for urgent funding for months now, and still have only about a quarter of the resources that we need for the next six months. Unless we receive significant new funding very soon, we could start running out of food for relief assistance by May,” McDonough said.
Samuel Ferfu, manager of the Children’s and Family Charitable Organization in Fentale, said another major issue is the lack of access to water. Almost 6 million people need emergency water, according to UNICEF.
“There’s no water at all — the river is dry,” he said. “No water makes sanitation impossible, and as a result, the prevalence of disease will increase.”
For the time being, Ethiopians are praying that rain will reach the worst-affected areas, but flooding is a serious risk after a lengthy drought.
“Soon the rain will come, and people’s worries will be flooding. But they have nothing except their homes to lose. They’ve already lost all their animals and crops,” said Lemma from ChildFund Ethiopia.
For Tamisat, 27, and her young children, talk of rain in the coming months is a false hope.
“We have no water and no food," she said, wiping sweat off her forehead. "I don’t know what is coming for the future, but I have no hope about the rain.”
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
UN warns of worsening hunger crisis in Ethiopia -669748
UN warns of worsening hunger crisis in Ethiopia
- March 7, 2016 21:12 IST
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is appealing for urgent aid for the people in Ethiopia, as Africas second most populous nation faces its worst drought in 50 years.
The devastating drought sparked by the worst El Niño in records has driven Ethiopia to an alarming state of food insecurity and malnutrition, the agency said. Water and animal feed are scarce in most parts of the country, leading to crop failures and widespread livestock deaths.
Shortage of clean water is also posing a threat to human health, with people drinking water from the same pond as their animals. Malnourished people and animals, some drinking water from murky pond in the north-eastern Afar region of Ethiopia, are seen in a video released by the FAO on 7 March.
This is dirty water and people are drinking it. So, its not only going to affect their lives, but the diseases that goes along with it, because they are drinking water from the same pond where animals defecate, where animals are drinking, said Patrick Kormawa, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa.
Our appeal to the international community is to support development organizations like FAO, to be able to provide safe drinking water, to be able to provide water for the animals, to be able to provide water for the crops, so that people will have a decent life. This is a catastrophe, Kormawa added.
There are extremely high livestock mortality rates due to poor grazing resources, feed shortages and limited water in the Afar Region and this has led to sharp declines in milk and meat production – a vital source of nutrition for these communities.
I lost 25 goats. We lost most of our cattle, said cattle herder, Oumer Beri. We received animal feed and hay. Some of our animals were saved because of this support. But this is not enough and we need more animal feed support to save our remaining animals.
The El Nino weather phenomenon has caused drought and flooding across Africa, leaving 20m people short of food in the south of the continent and 14m in the east, the United Nations said. The number in need is greatest in Ethiopia. Famine, triggered by war and drought, killed one million people in Ethiopia in 1984. The nation now has one of Africas fastest-growing economies but many people are still small-scale farmers and herders dependent on seasonal rains.
The drought is not just a food crisis – above all, it is a livelihood crisis. FAO is urgently appealing for $13m (£9.18m) by the end of March for seed support – both food crop and forage seed – to enable them to provide survival feed for drought and core breeding stock to livestock-dependent households as well as continuing their work to provide safe and separate water resources for animals and people
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