Did Live Aid Funds Go To The Purchase Of Weapons?

Millions of people were saved by the Western aid that poured into Ethiopia after Live Aid. (Jeremy Nicholl/The Times)

Bob, Band Aid And How The Rebels Bought Their Arms -- The BBC

An edition of the BBC World Service programme Assignment, alleging that money intended for famine relief in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s was used to buy weapons, has prompted an angry response from aid campaigners.

Andrew Whitehead, Editor, News and Current Affairs at the BBC World Service, explains how the story came about.

Read more ....

Update: Bob Geldof: Live Aid money did not pay for weapons -- The Guardian

My Comment: This case screams for an independent investigation .... unfortunately .... aside from denying that funds were used for arm purchases .... there is little if any appetite from Sir Bob Geldof and others to push for one.

Ethiopia Rejects Warning Of Hunger After Drought

From The BBC:

An Ethiopian minister has denied reports that millions of people need urgent food aid after failed rains.

Disaster Prevention Minister Mikitu Kassa told the BBC that the government was helping those hit by the drought.

He was speaking after the US-funded Famine Early Warning System warned of increased hunger in parts of the country in the coming months.

Ethiopia has been extremely sensitive to images showing its people as starving since the famine of 1984-5.

Mr Mikitu said the report was "not evidence-based".

"It is baseless, it is contrary to the situation on the ground," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

Read more ....

My Comment: This part of the world has always experienced tragedy on a biblical .... it appears history is about to repeat itself.

Ethiopians Braced For New Famine

From The Telegraph:

Last year, the rains were good. Teagistu Gansamo filled the fertile earth of her half-acre plot with maize and bean seeds and, for months afterwards, she and her five children ate well.

A year later, she was squatting on a grubby pink blanket outside a rural health centre deep in Ethiopia's south, holding her listless infant son Harony tightly to her chest.

She walked eight miles through the heat of the day to bring Harony here to Boricha, 180 miles south of the capital Addis Ababa.

When nurses admitted him, into a ward crammed with 38 other severely malnourished babies, the boy with the narrow face and weak smile weighed less than a stone.

Read more ....

News on Ethiopia From Other Sources:
As famine looms in Ethiopia, only the neediest get food aid -- Christian Science Monitor
Ethiopia’s political landscape worrying -- The East African
New famine threat for Ethiopia -- New Scotsman

My Comment: The African tragedy continues.