Echoes of '84 famine as drought then flood hit Ethiopia
Pastor Dale Morgan
Echoes of '84 famine as drought then flood hit Ethiopia*
By Mike Pflanz in Gode
Last Updated: 1:53am GMT 16/11/2006
Ethiopia's arid south is locked into a "crisis cycle" of deadly drought
and floods not seen since the country's worst ever famine in 1984, aid
workers have said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and countless goats, cows and
camels - the only wealth of the region - have been swept away since
heavy rains broke in August and again this month.
The grim assessment by aid workers came as Kofi Annan, the secretary
general of the United Nations, addressed a climate change conference in
Nairobi, Kenya. "Global climate change must take its place alongside
those threats - conflict, poverty, the proliferation of deadly weapons -
that have traditionally monopolised political attention," he said.
Aid agencies working in Ethiopia estimate that 280,000 subsistence
farmers have recently been forced to flee their villages for makeshift
shelters on higher ground as seasonal rivers switched from dustbowls to
speeding torrents overnight.
High-water indicators, marking record river levels, have been submerged
under waves that burst over muddy banks and flooded more than 17,000
hectares of grazing and crop fields. The Wabe Shabelle river doubled in
volume, rising 25ft in two days. "It's exactly the same as happened in
1984, drought then floods a few months later hitting people when they
are most vulnerable," said Ahmed Abdi from the United Nations World Food
Programme in Gode, 420 miles south-east of Addis Ababa. The British
charity, Save The Children, last week called for donations to buy
plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and water purification kits for 50,000
people.
Ethiopia's government, the UN and scores of international organisations
are running appeals to help the region, on the border with volatile
Somalia, which has also been hit by the rising water levels. To the
south, along Kenya's coast, flash floods have killed 23 and displaced
60,000 people.
The devastation comes just eight months after the Horn of Africa was hit
by a drought that destroyed livestock and left struggling governments
appealing for aid.
"This time two years ago, I was a rich man," said Kadiye Abdile, a
60-year-old elder of Elan village, eight miles outside Gode.
"I owned 120 cows. Then the drought took 100 of them, and now these
floods have left me with only 15."
Other headmen in this village of 40 thatched huts draped in orange
plastic sheeting said the situation was worse than at any time since
millions faced famine in the drought that prompted the first Live Aid.
"We are like beggars now. We have to chop firewood and take it to sell
at market, that is the only money we get for food," said Abdi Bile, 40.
"We have not seen anything like this for more than 20 years," said
Hussein Abdi, 65, who lost 12 relatives to the 1984 famine.
These marginal regions may seem remote and empty, but experts say there
are too many people and animals for the environment to sustain.
This, combined with large-scale environmental degradation and changes in
global weather patterns, is increasing the frequency of drought and
floods in Africa.
But in the long term, rainwater holds "massive potential" to slake the
thirst of Africans if it is properly harvested, stored and used,
according to the UN. In the short term, the rains have at least brought
precious moisture to these flat, arid plains.
"The situation is hard now, but I believe people can cope because they
have a chance to plant and to build up the strength of their remaining
livestock," said Mr Abdi.