This week’s BBC report has been described as “sensational” by the Ethiopian Embassy in London, but the UN says Ethiopia is experiencing its worst drought in decades impacting more than fifteen million people. (BBC)
By Amelia Butterly
“There will not be famine of any sort, let alone anything remotely like the magnitude of that of 1984,” says the Ethiopian Embassy in London.
For people aged over 30, that sentence, coming from Ethiopian officials, holds a special kind of meaning.
Because those people saw the TV reports in the 1980s showing thousands of children and adults starving to death.
Now, three decades on, the United Nations is warning that 15 million Ethiopians will need food aid by 2016.
This week’s BBC report has been described as “sensational” by the Ethiopian Embassy.
In it, one man who lived through the famines of the 1980s says he expects the same thing will happen to Ethiopia again in the coming months.
Read more at BBC News »
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Related:
Drought Takes Terrible Toll in Ethiopia (BBC News)
Ethiopia Tries to Avert Another Famine (The Economist)
Worrying aid shortages as malnutrition hits record high in Ethiopia (Reuters)
El Niño Strikes Ethiopia (NY Times Editorial)
Ethiopia, a Nation of Farmers, Strains Under Severe Drought (The New York Times)
Ethiopia’s Government Makes International Appeal for Food Aid After Poor Harvests (AP)
Ethiopian drought threatens growth as cattle die, crops fail (Bloomberg)
Drought Hits Millions in Ethiopia (Radio France International)
Sharp rise in hungry Ethiopians needing aid: UN (AFP)
Ethiopia: Need for Food Aid Surges (Reuters)
The Cause of Ethiopia’s Recurrent Famine: Is it Drought or Authoritarianism? (The Huffington Post)
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