Ethiopia: A toxic cocktail of drought
Djibouti (HAN) August 19th, 2008 - According to the Canada's aid game in Ethiopia, you think Ethiopia, you think famine -- and one's too often too close to the next one. The country is impoverished and depends on foreign food aid to survive.
There are success stories,though, in one of the poorest countries in Africa; according to the CBC radio program, Canada has an interest in seeing stability in the Horn of Africa.
The international aid organization, OXFAM, says Ethiopia is facing what it calls a "toxic cocktail" of drought, high food prices, delivery problems and plagues.
Oxfam says Ethiopia, one of the world's hungriest nations, has seen a drought kill the entire spring crop in some areas and global inflation double the price of food.
In addition, armed rebellion in the Somali region has disrupted food delivery and assorted plagues from insects to hailstones have hit the country.
Since 1985, Ethiopia's population has doubled to almost 80 million while per-capital farm production has declined. The United States alone will give about $460 million this year, part of a $1 billion non-military foreign assistance package.
Peter Walker, a Tufts University famine specialist, terms Ethiopia's hunger "a ticking time bomb."
Today, a nation that has long seen itself as the most independent in Africa is facing ever-growing dependence on food aid from other countries, USA Today intoned. Famine detection, prevention and alleviation have become a major industry in Ethiopia.
China (1959-61): The "Great Leap Famine" cost an estimated 20 million to 40 million lives in China as the policies of Mao Zedong resulted in massive social and economic upheaval. China was also hit by major famines in 1941-1942.