Soaring food prices adding to crisis

Published on Wednesday 11 June 2008 01:33

ETHIOPIA'S devastating famine of 1984-85, in which a reported one million people died, provoked a historic response in Britain and the West.

Rock star Bob Geldof launched Live Aid, which produced the charity Band Aid single, Do They Know It's Christmas?, and the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia that raised more than 50 million.

This year's famine is nowhere near that terrible event, but is the worst to hit the country since 2003.

The 1984 famine came after drought and disease wiped out crops in Sidamo, the traditional bread-basket region. The Ethiopian government issued appeals for aid in March of that year, but by August thousands were dying daily. The West was reluctant to prop up the Marxist military regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam while a civil war still raged in the country's northern provinces.

Mengistu fled the country as rebels captured the capital, Addis Ababa, in 1991.

Different factors are at play in this year's crisis, compounded by dramatic increases in food and fuel prices worldwide.

Last week, a UN summit of 181 countries pledged to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production to combat rising food prices.

The UN children's agency has characterised this year's food shortage as the worst since 2003, when droughts led 13.2 million people to seek such aid. In 2000, more than ten million needed emergency food.

Officials estimate Ethiopia needs 300,000 tonnes of food supplies to last until the next harvest, due in September. They are warning that tens of thousands of children could die unless help arrives soon.

The World Food Programme says about 73 million is needed to feed children at risk of starvation.