Drought and Famine: Ethiopia's Cycle Continues

Children wait for treatment in southern Ethiopia after failed rains led to malnutrition in 2008. Jose Cendon / AFRC / AFP

From Time Magazine:

As Ethiopia remains caught in a deadly cycle of drought and famine, aid agencies warn that erratic rainfall and ever-rising food costs are compounding the problems carried over from last year's drought to leave 6.2 million people in need of food assistance, on top of the 7.5 million already getting aid from the government.

Close to 14 million Ethiopians — 20% of the country's total population — now have difficulty finding enough to eat, including, according to UNICEF, 62,000 children under five in the worst-affected areas who received treatment for severe acute malnutrition during the first half of 2009. And that number is set to rise. "There are growing concerns about the impact of relief food shortfalls on already vulnerable children," UNICEF said on Aug. 6. "As therapeutic feeding programs reach more hot-spot districts, the number of severely malnourished children receiving treatment will increase." The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says the problem in the ethnic Somali region, Ogaden, is complicated even further due to "insurgent activity and security operations" that are disrupting trade networks and the movement of people and livestock.

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My Comment: Time Magazine was printing the same story 25 years ago when famine hit the Ogaden region and Ethiopia .... the same story again in 1992-1993 .... and (it appears) the same story now.

The only difference is that the number of civilians affected increases with each cycle of drought, political instability, and famine.

You would think that a different plan of action should be formulated and implemented. But no .... we are not learning from the past, and we are just repeating history.