New York (Tadias) – After The New York Timespublished a cover story earlier this week featuring a heart-wrenching photograph depicting the worsening food crisis affecting millions of people in the Horn of Africa, the U.S. media may be about to boost its coverage of what’s being described as the “worst famine in a generation.”
According to The New York Times: “The famine in Africa has had to compete with the wrangling over the debt ceiling, the mobile phone hacking scandals in Britain, the killings in Norway and, in Africa itself, the birth of a new country, the Republic of South Sudan.”
“I’m asking myself where is everybody and how loud do I have to yell and from what mountaintop,” Caryl Stern, chief executive of the United States Fund for UNICEF, told NYT. “The overwhelming problem is that the American public is not seeing and feeling the urgency of this crisis.”
When a Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper published a cartoon last month showing starving Africans engrossed in the European phone-hacking scandal, it was swiftly and correctly criticized as a tasteless joke. “But the underlying point — that the media has largely ignored what’s happening in Africa — was well taken,” writes Dylan Stableford for The Cutline.
Until recently, ABC claimed that it is the only American news network to have a reporter at the epicenter of Africa’s largest famine in 60 years.
“But that may soon change,” says Stableford.
U.S. administration officials and lawmakers are ringing alarm bells and warning of dire consequences unless global partners urgently step up aid. AFP reports that “even though the famine is expected to worsen and eventually dwarf the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, which claimed nearly a million lives, the public is not stepping up to try to help as it did nearly 30 years ago, when the international community responded to the crisis with fundraisers like Live Aid.”
“It is the most severe humanitarian crisis in a generation, affecting food security for more than 12 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and surrounding areas,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons said as as he opened a hearing on the crisis.
“Based on nutrition and mortality surveys… we estimate that more than 29,000 children under five — nearly four percent of children — have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia,” Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), told lawmakers.
Per the U.N.: The humanitarian disaster is likely to expand beyond Somalia in the next few weeks and spread into neighboring Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, David Muir, the American TV journalist in Mogadishu, reported from the city on Monday’s “World News With Diane Sawyer,” describing the situation as the “worst famine in a generation.”
“In Ethiopia’s rain-starved eastern badlands, livestock is the sole asset for most. Swaddled in robes, pastoralist families traverse huge tracts searching for water and pasture for their herds, uprooting camps as they go. When seasonal rains fail, life becomes a battle for survival,” reports csmonitor.com.
“As aid agencies scramble to feed some 11.5 million people suffering from what is being called the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in 60 years, Ethiopia’s government is enacting a resettlement program that it hopes will be a longlasting solution to a longstanding burden.”
The World Bank Friday unveiled new details of its plan to help victims of drought in the Horn of Africa. The bulk of the effort focuses on Ethiopia and Kenya, not Somalia.
The bank’s Country Director for East Africa Johannes Zutt says over $600 million is being made available to those affected by the drought in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
But only $9 million is going directly toward disaster relief in Somalia, the worst hit country in East Africa.
Watch New Video: Horn of Africa Famine Puts 11 Million People at Risk of Hunger (PBS News)
— Related: World Reacts to Avert Famine in East Africa
Tadias Magazine
News Update
Thursday, July 28, 2011
New York (Tadias) – The UN’s World Food Program has started airlifting supplies of emergency food into the Somali capital Mogadishu, as relief and fundraising efforts continued for millions of people affected by the looming hunger crisis in drought-hit areas of East Africa.
At an emergency meeting held at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome recently, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran warned the international community the problem could become a wider catastrophe unless immediate action is taken. “The drought has swept the Horn of Africa where more than 11 million people are in need of food assistance,” she said. “We are particularly worried about Somalia right now and it is vital that we reach those at the epicentre of the famine with food assistance.”
The United Nations says the developing crisis is the largest famine in 60 years. Nearly 12 million people are thought to be at risk of food insecurity in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Djibouti. Ethiopians constitute 4.56 million of the current total food insecure populations in the region. According to UNICEF, 2.23 million children in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are estimated to be acutely malnourished. And nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without urgent assistance.
“The area straddling Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya, has been dubbed the “triangle of death” as the worst drought in more than fifty years grips the area,” writes Stewart M. Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance. “An estimated thirty percent of children are malnourished, many arriving in refugee camps so “emaciated and with skin lesions so deep that you could see their bones showing in their skulls and arms.” According to testimony by State Department official Reuben Brigety, acute malnutrition has reached 50% and 40%, respectively, in Ethiopia and Kenya—far above the 15% threshold for an international humanitarian emergency.”
Per AFP: “Officials said the UN had received about $US1 billion ($A924.56 million) since first launching an appeal for the region in November 2010 but needs a billion more by the end of the year to cope with the emergency. The World Bank on Monday pledged more than $500 million, with the bulk of the money set to go towards long-term projects to aid livestock farmers while $12 million would be for immediate assistance to those worst hit by the crisis. However charities have slammed low aid pledges and say not enough is being done.”
Read more.
— Cover image: A woman from southern Somalia struggles to build a makeshift shelter from tree branches at a new camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, on July 13. (Mohamed Sheikh Nor / AP)
New York (Tadias) – A humanitarian crisis of historic proportions is unfolding in drought-hit areas of East Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The United Nations says the pending disaster is the largest famine in 60 years.
The UN warns relief is needed urgently and should not be ignored or the world will once again be witnessing the repeat of history, this time on a much larger scale. Unless quickly prevented, nearly 12 million people are thought to be at risk of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa this year. That’s an alarmingly large number of people affected in contrast to the widely publicized 1984 famine that killed approximately one million people. Ethiopians constitute 4.56 million of the current total food insecure populations in the region.
Sadly, the familiar images of hungry children with skinny, malnourished bodies on television screens and front-pages of newspapers around the world, conjures depressing sense of déjà vu for the international community. According to UNICEF, in total 2.23 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are estimated to be acutely malnourished. And nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without immediate assistance.
Dr. Reuben Brigety, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, said in a testimony before the House Subcommittee on Africa earlier this month that “in Ethiopia, global acute malnutrition rates close to 50% have been reported among newly arriving refugee children.” Dr. Brigety added: “This situation is substantially worse than when I last visited the Dolo Odo refugee camps in Ethiopia in February of this year. Newly arriving children are now dying in the refugee camp at the rate of two to three per day.”
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization held an emergency meeting in Rome on Monday to discuss campaign strategy to moblize and deliver aid to the region. The meeting was attended by representatives from the G20 countries, ministers and senior officials from UN’s 191 member nations, other U.N. bodies, NGOs and regional development banks.
The UN has officially declared famine in parts of Somalia and it has designated large areas in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya as a crisis or an emergency zone.
Watch: UN Declares Famine in Somalia, Channel 4 News
“This summer has been an unspeakable nightmare for millions of children in the Horn of Africa,” said President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Caryl Stern. “We cannot control the weather patterns that have led to drought and famine, but we can do something about helping those who suffer from it. The sooner we act, the more children’s lives can be saved. As little as $10 can feed a child for 10 days.”
UNICEF estimates it will need $100 million over the next six months for a massive scale up of operations to reach children in the drought affected areas with emergency and preventative assistance.
“UNICEF is using every means possible to reach every child. There simply can be no compromise on the objective to keep children and their families alive,” said Elhadj As Sy, Regional Director for UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa. “We appreciate the generosity of the international community and those contributions are already making a difference. We urgently need more funds to meet the enormous need.”
————- For more information or to make a tax-deductible contribution to relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, please contact the U.S. Fund for UNICEF: Website: www.unicefusa.org/donate/horn. Or call toll free: 1-800-4UNICEF (1-800-486-4233). Text: Text “FOOD” to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10. Mail: 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038.
Cover photo: Aden Salaad, 2, looks up at his mother as she bathes him in a tub at a Doctors Without Borders hospital, where Aden is receiving treatment for malnutrition, in Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on Monday, July 11. (Rebecca Blackwell / AP)
Video: East Africa Food Crisis – Somalia Faces Famine as al-Qaida Threat Halts International Aid
New York (Tadias) – A humanitarian crisis of historic proportions is unfolding in drought-hit areas of East Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The United Nations says the pending disaster is the largest famine in 60 years.
The UN warns relief is needed urgently and should not be ignored or the world will once again be witnessing the repeat of history, this time on a much larger scale. Unless quickly prevented, nearly 12 million people are thought to be at risk of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa this year. That’s an alarmingly large number of people affected in contrast to the widely publicized 1984 famine that killed approximately one million people. Ethiopians constitute 4.56 million of the current total food insecure populations in the region.
Sadly, the familiar images of hungry children with skinny, malnourished bodies on television screens and front-pages of newspapers around the world, conjures depressing sense of déjà vu for the international community. According to UNICEF, in total 2.23 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are estimated to be acutely malnourished. And nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without immediate assistance.
Dr. Reuben Brigety, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, said in a testimony before the House Subcommittee on Africa earlier this month that “in Ethiopia, global acute malnutrition rates close to 50% have been reported among newly arriving refugee children.” Dr. Brigety added: “This situation is substantially worse than when I last visited the Dolo Odo refugee camps in Ethiopia in February of this year. Newly arriving children are now dying in the refugee camp at the rate of two to three per day.”
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization held an emergency meeting in Rome recently to discuss campaign strategy to moblize and deliver aid to the region. The meeting was attended by representatives from the G20 countries, ministers and senior officials from UN’s 191 member nations, other U.N. bodies, NGOs and regional development banks.
The UN has officially declared famine in parts of Somalia and it has designated large areas in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya as a crisis or an emergency zone. But the organization says the disaster is likely to expand beyond Somalia in the next few weeks and spread into Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
Watch: UN Declares Famine in Somalia, Channel 4 News
“This summer has been an unspeakable nightmare for millions of children in the Horn of Africa,” said President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Caryl Stern. “We cannot control the weather patterns that have led to drought and famine, but we can do something about helping those who suffer from it. The sooner we act, the more children’s lives can be saved. As little as $10 can feed a child for 10 days.”
UNICEF estimates it will need $100 million over the next six months for a massive scale up of operations to reach children in the drought affected areas with emergency and preventative assistance.
“UNICEF is using every means possible to reach every child. There simply can be no compromise on the objective to keep children and their families alive,” said Elhadj As Sy, Regional Director for UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa. “We appreciate the generosity of the international community and those contributions are already making a difference. We urgently need more funds to meet the enormous need.”
————- For more information or to make a tax-deductible contribution to relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, please contact the U.S. Fund for UNICEF: Website: www.unicefusa.org/donate/horn. Or call toll free: 1-800-4UNICEF (1-800-486-4233). Text: Text “FOOD” to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10. Mail: 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038.
Above:A quarter century after the 1984 famine, which left
millions of Ethiopians destitute, familiar faces still linger as
the country remains dependent on food aid. (Sven Torfinn )
ABC News
By DANA HUGHES
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct. 29, 2009
Drought-stricken Ethiopia is pleading for food aid again to stave off starvation, but some critics are complaining that the policies of the country’s most generous donor, the United States, is exacerbating the cycle of starvation. A hungry Ethiopia gets 70 percent of its aid from the U.S., but according to a new report by the aid organization Oxfam International, that help comes at a cost. U.S. law requires that food aid money be spent on food grown in the U.S., at least half of it must be packed in the U.S. and most of it must be transported in U.S. ships. The Oxfam report, “Band Aids and Beyond,” claims that is far more expensive and time consuming than buying food in the region. Read More.
Video: Famine eclipses Ethiopia’s beauty and rich history (Worldfocus)The Huffington Post: 25th anniversary of Ethiopia famine – Has anything changed since? My colleague Marc Cohen, a senior researcher at Oxfam America, reflects on the 25th anniversary since the devastating famine of 1984 in Ethiopia. He was in the country a few months ago: Twenty-five years ago, Michael Buerk’s dramatic BBC footage from Korem, in northern Ethiopia, brought a devastating famine to the world’s attention. Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge from war and drought in the town. Every 20 minutes, a camp resident died from hunger and related diseases. Buerk called Korem “the closest thing to hell on earth.” Read the whole story: The Huffington Post.
Video: The 1984 Ethiopian famine (BBC)
Related from Tadias archives: We are the World Above:To raise money for the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia,
45 popular singers collaborated to record the charity single
“We Are the World”, co-written by Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie. They included Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder,
Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, The Pointer Sisters, Kenny Rogers,
Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and
many more. (Photo: United Support of Artists for Africa)
The Song Michael Jackson Co-wrote to Benefit Ethiopia Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Monday, June 28, 2009 New York (Tadias) – The painfully wrenching images of hungry children, which invaded living rooms around the world in the mid 80’s, prompted Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to organize the 1985 Live Aid concert and ‘raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia’. The multi-nation event, which showcased some of the biggest names in the music industry, included Michael Jackson, who co-wrote the project’s signature song “We Are the World” along with Lionel Richie. The song was recorded on the night of January 28, 1985, following the American Music Awards. Read more.
My colleague Marc Cohen, a senior researcher at Oxfam America, reflects on the 25th anniversary since the devastating famine of 1984 in Ethiopia. He was in the country a few months ago: Twenty-five years ago, Michael Buerk’s dramatic BBC footage from Korem, in northern Ethiopia, brought a devastating famine to the world’s attention. Tens of thousands of people had sought refuge from war and drought in the town. Every 20 minutes, a camp resident died from hunger and related diseases. Buerk called Korem “the closest thing to hell on earth.”
25 years after Michael Buerk’s broadcasts from Ethiopia, the documentaries have stopped, but the starvation hasn’t.
Michael Buerk describes them as “by far the most influential pieces of television ever broadcast”. The first of his two BBC News reports that revealed the horror of mass death by starvation in Ethiopia aired 25 years ago this Friday, with the second a day later. They prompted a huge wave of private giving, shamed negligent western governments into action and ushered in a new era in the aid business. Read more.
Oxfam’s deputy humanitarian director says the famine is
reaching a “tipping point”. Watch the video on BBC.
A severe and persistent five-year drought, deepened by climate change, is now stretching across seven countries in the region and exacting a heavy human toll, made worse by high food prices and violent conflict. The worst affected countries are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. Other countries hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania.
Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of cattle – people’s key source of income – are dying. This is the worst drought that Kenya has experienced for a decade, and the worst humanitarian situation Somalia has experienced since 1991.
The high numbers of people affected – more than double the number caught up in similar food crisis in 2006, when 11 million were at risk – underline the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for funding to prevent the crisis getting worse.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa Director said:
“This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in East Africa for over ten years. Failed and unpredictable rains are ever more regular across East Africa as raining seasons shorten due to the growing influence of climate change. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years. In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source. People are surviving on 2 liters of water a day in some places – less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive.”
In Kenya , 3.8 million, a tenth of the population, are in need of emergency aid. Food prices have spiraled to 180 percent above average. Areas such as Rift Valley, which have never previously experienced a drought of this intensity are now affected. Conflict over rapidly diminishing resources such as water and pasture for cattle is increasing. Desperate herders are taking their cattle further to look for water and food, sparking tensions with other groups competing for the same resources. Sixty-five people have been killed in Turkana, northern Kenya since June 2009.
One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia , and people are trekking for days to find water in the northern regions of the country. Conflict means that people are less able to grow the food, and drought is creating hardship in areas where people have fled. Half of the population – over 3.8 million people – are affected.
In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger and need assistance. Many are selling their cattle to buy food. In northern Uganda farmers have lost half of their crops and more than 2 million people across the country desperately need aid.
Some 160,000 people mainly around the wild life tourist area of Ngorongoro in north-eastern Tanzania are also at risk. In Djibouti there are worrying levels of increased malnutrition and in South Sudan conflict has put 88,000 people at particular risk.
The aid response to the crisis needs to rapidly expand, but it is desperately short of funds. The World Food Program is facing a $977 million donor shortfall for its work in the Horn of Africa over the next six months. The government of Uganda appealed for donor money to tackle the food crisis, but has so far received only 50 percent of the funding it needs.
Rains are due in October but are likely to bring scant relief or worse still, deluges that could dramatically worsen the situation. There are genuine fears that the region could be hit by floods as a result of the El Nino phenomenon, which could destroy crops and houses, and increase the spread of water-borne diseases. Even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010. People will still need aid to get them through a long hunger season.
Oxfam staff are on the ground helping those at risk but the organisation is appealing for help from the UK public to help scale up its efforts. The agency is expanding its aid effort to reach more than 750,000 people but is in desperate need for funds to do this work. Oxfam is supplying emergency clean water and access to food, and also carrying out long-term projects to strengthen people’s ability to cope with future shocks.
