5 August 2011: It is a complex, complicated situation in southern Ethiopia. There are multiple factors at play. The ethnic conflict has affected many on and off since 2004. Hundreds of people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting. Houses have been destroyed and months later, they have slowly started settling back.

The rains failed again in February and the crops failed in what was already a very vulnerable area. Land access is also an issue for many families who may want to grow their own food.

Plan action

Edo is not one of Plan’s normal operational areas. We have been intervening in other parts like Shebedino for some time with supplementary food distributions and trying to support livestock -  helping some 3,066 children and breast-feeding women. And also with more long-term solutions like repairing and rehabilitating water points and providing high quality hybrid seeds for planting. 

In the district of Wondogenet (where Edo is located), nearly 5,000 children and lactating mothers are receiving supplementary feeding as part of Plan’s relief work.

Worse than feared

But the situation is worse than everyone earlier thought, than we feared. The UN estimates that over 12,390,000 people are in need of food assistance in the Horn of Africa, out of which 4,800,000 people are in Ethiopia. 

Plan will start operations in 5 new areas because of urgent need. But it is difficult - when you start up in a new area you have to get clearance from local government and other agencies, assess and get to know the area first. 

In Shebedino district alone, 3,695 new cases of children and lactating mothers with malnutrition have been identified and talks with the local government are in progress so we can start providing supplementary feeding.

Advance warning

The UN says the number of Somali refugees coming over here has fallen from 2,000 to 300 a day - and is increasing rapidly into Kenya. But the questions you need to ask are: ‘Is that because, they are just too exhausted to make the crossing or because they are going elsewhere? Or have the borders been tightened?’

The thing with drought is that it is a slow-onset emergency. You know well in advance this is coming and can lead to food shortage. FEWS Net (Famine Early Warning Systems Network) set up after the 1985 famine, said this is the worst drought in 60 years. 

In the case of neighbouring Somalia (where over 2,800,000 people need immediate life-saving support), famine was declared in July, 8 months after the first FEWS Net forecast. The UN’s first appeal came after that - by which time, it was already at tipping point.

So the good news is you get an early warning; the bad news is the world doesn’t give a damn until there are pictures of dying children in the media – when time is already running out.

Half will go hungry

The UN says it needs US$2 billion for the Horn of Africa. The sad thing is donors pledged half of this, which means that half the people will go hungry. Rich nations need to be more generous and need to act now. Moreover, we need sustainable long-term solutions to stop this happening time and time again.

This will involve better food and nutrition security, better public health systems, disaster risk reduction measures, better agricultural and live stock practices, better trade policies etc. Mostly importantly, it is necessary to place children at the centre of any discussion on ‘drought’ or food crisis. They are the worst hit and often the least heard.

But at least in the case of Meselech and Abraham, we intervened in time. I think if we hadn’t she would not have had much hope.

Donate to the East Africa appeal

Watch Unni’s video report from Ethiopia

Find out more about Plan’s East Africa drought response