Ethiopia, humanitarian groups say food aid for 7.8 million to run out
Are we incapable of building a functioning successful state in any country? This is Ethiopia, that has a government and even here we are the poorest and most backward ethnic group. NFD is equally a dry drought-ridden shithole. I genuinely think Allah has cursed us or something. And I don't even believe in that nonsense, but there's got to be a supernatural element to Somali collective stupidity. Nomadism in the 21st century.
By Aaron Maasho | WARDER, ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia will run out of emergency food aid for 7.8 million people hit by severe drought by the end of this month, the government and humanitarian groups said.
Successive failed rains blamed by meteorologists on fluctuations in ocean temperatures known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) have created a series of severe back-to-back droughts in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region.
In Ethiopia, the number of people now critically short of food is expected to rise by at least two million by next month, according to figures compiled by the government and its humanitarian partners.
Donors, international aid groups and the government say existing food aid for the current 7.8 million will run out as funds are critically short this year with Ethiopia receiving slightly more than half of the $930 million to meet requirements until July.
"We are in a dire situation," John Aylieff, the World Food Programme's representative in Ethiopia, said on Friday during a field trip to Warder in southeast Ethiopia, one of Ethiopia's hardest-hit areas.
"We've got food running out nationally at the end of June. That means the 7.8 million people who are in need of humanitarian food assistance in Ethiopia will see that distribution cut abruptly at the end of June," he added.
"Last year, we spent a lot of money to confront this type of drought. It is very challenging," said Mitiku Kassa, head of Ethiopia's National Disaster Risk Management Commission.
Across the Horn of Africa, close to 17 million people need humanitarian aid due to drought, including 2.6 million in Kenya and 3.2 million in Somalia, according to the U.N.
In the treeless plains littered with makeshift plastic homes in Ethiopia's Warder, bordering Somalia, displaced and destitute pastoralists said their entire herds had been decimated.
"We have had droughts before, but this time we have drought, diarrhoea and disease," said Ardo Yusuf, a 49-year old mother who said her entire livestock had succumbed to illness.
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
Are we incapable of building a functioning successful state in any country? This is Ethiopia, that has a government and even here we are the poorest and most backward ethnic group. NFD is equally a dry drought-ridden shithole. I genuinely think Allah has cursed us or something. And I don't even believe in that nonsense, but there's got to be a supernatural element to Somali collective stupidity. Nomadism in the 21st century.