Ethiopia Needs Food Aid for 6.2 Million
Related subjects: Africa, Diplomacy & Politics, Economy, Harvest & Food Supply, Humanitarian Crisis Comments (0)
The government of Ethiopia has issued an emergency appeal for food aid to prevent 6.2 million people from falling into chronic hunger. The collapse of harvests and prolonged severe drought conditions has made it near impossible for Ethiopia to provide food for its surging population. The new aid plea has international aid organizations and financial institutions scrambling to work out the real human need and arrange assistance.
Allegations of political corruption and criticism for Ethiopia’s heavy spending on an extensive military build-up and operations around the region have been widespread since the aid request, but aid agencies and international donors have been adamant that the victims of famine cannot be victimized again by being denied life-saving food aid for political reasons.
The World Bank has approved $480 million in emergency aid, a $350 million aid package and a $130 million credit to help expand assistance to the millions in need, through a food-for-work safety net program. The aid package is intended to help Ethiopia cope with the threat to its people while also providing an incentive for spurring innovation and economic output.
There is widespread suspicion the policies of the government are partly to blame for the chronic food shortages and economic stagnation linked to the famine. Some observers even decry policies of racial and ethnic segregation that have effectively shifted the burden of chronic famine from one part of the country to the rest of the country.
According to Opride:
Now 25 years after [the tragic Ethiopian famine] the tribal junta has managed to institute ethnic apartheid policies to discriminate against the Oromos, Amharas and other Ethiopians. In so doing it shifted the famine from Northern Ethiopia to Central, Southern, Eastern and Western Ethiopia—making Ethiopia yet again the closest thing to hell on Earth.
The Western Countries and International Financial Institutions must stop providing financial, political and above all military aid to the minority ethnic regime of Meles Zenawi in order to end famine and continuing humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia.
25 years after rampant hunger killed one million people, Ethiopians remain on the brink of starvation in massive numbers, and there is pressure on Ethiopia to shift its policy and spending priorities, even to demand that extensive military aid be replaced with economic an humanitarian strategies for long term recovery.
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