Millions facing famine in Ethiopia as rains fail

Ethiopia is facing a famine of the same proportion as the one which triggered Bob Geldof’s famous Live Aid appeal nearly a quarter of a century ago, international aid agencies fear.

Late rains mean that levels of death last seen during the famine of 1984-85, revealed by the BBCs haunting TV images of starving children with distended stomachs, are set to return to the Horn of Africa.

Twenty-four years ago the world's pop stars gathered to banish the famine at Live Aid, raising £150m for relief efforts. Since then, Ethiopia's population has increased to 80 million, and a worrying proportion are now on the brink of malnutrition and possibly starvation this winter, in what is shaping up to be the country's worst food crisis for decades.

This year the British government has donated £54m in aid and has has also contributed through the EU. Already, one in six of Ethiopia’s population is receiving food aid – half in return for work on community projects.

The people of Ethiopia depend on rains, which usually start in July. This summer, the rain came three weeks late and the amount of rainfall, when it did come, was below normal. Aid agencies fear that the season could end early, or, equally bad, produce delayed downpours just when farmers need dry weather for the harvest.

Last week, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported ‘critical water shortages’. Diseases carried by water such as diarrhoea were spreading as communities resort to drinking from dirty wells and ponds, it said. And the outbreaks are putting extra pressure on the country’s medical services.

Aid agencies are worried about the autumn harvest, warning that the time for action is now, not when the food runs out in November – usually the driest month.

Many in Africa blame climate change for the unusual weather patterns and resulting food shortages. As Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union, said last week: "Although Africa is least responsible for global warming, it suffers most from a problem it didn't create."