concern is growing over a looming famine
in Eastern Africa where the un's world
food program has been estimated that 20
million people are in need of assistance
Aid groups say conflict corruption and
drought are all contributing factors in
Ethiopia's War torn Tigre and amhara
regions the government recently
confirmed that hundreds of people have
died due to starvation in recent months
a rare acknowledgment of the crisis DW's
Mariel Müller looks at the situation
outside the Tay Region's Capital
Mel it took hours for L gabra to carry
her 2-year-old son to yila the town with
the nearest hospital just in time it
seems when my son got seriously ill I
brought him
here they gave him a nutritional
supplement called plumpy
nut I'm feeding him with that
slowly little Haun gusu is getting
better L and her husband are farmers
like many in the region but the ongoing
drought has killed off all their crops
and
animals we are starving I have been
begging for food in nearby town since
October my son is starving I haven't
received any
help back in her Village there are many
people in a similar State she tells us
but there too weak to make the journey
those who do reach the hospital are
already in a very bad condition nurse YF
gabrich says in the past 3 months
malnutrition cases have
tripled we have taken care of more than
120 children who came to our
Hospital even they aren't getting enough
support we cannot accept anymore because
we don't have the resources to help
them they suffer at home on their
own he's worried about the long-term
consequences malnutrition causes
persistent problems for the Next
Generation those malnourished children
will be affected physically mentally and
their General development over
all the town of yila has witnessed one
of the war's fiercest battles bombed out
trucks can still be seen along the roads
following the 2-year war that ended in
2022 came months of
drought in March 2023 the United Nations
and the United States halted food aid
for the Tira region and later to the
whole country because of a widespread
scheme by Ethiopian officials to steal
humanitarian
grain after reforms were put in place
eight agencies resumed deliveries 2
months ago but of the over 3 million
people targeted only 14% have so far
received any
food 25 km outside the town of yila
farmers and bu gasi and his wife are
desperate to find anything to eat for
the next
day we need aid from the government and
donors if not we Face death no one will
survive we need attention we are human
too across Ethiopia one and six of the
120 million population need food Aid
because of drought conflict and Rising
inflation ire who hasn't had a proper
meal in weeks hopes it won't arrive too
late joining us now for more is gazah
hang cab gahana country director in
Ethiopia for Oxfam thanks for being with
us now your organization Oxfam issued a
warning earlier this month describing
how people are resorting to Desperate
Measures in Ethiopia to survive this
hunger crisis what are we talking about
here well evidently you know uh in spite
of being one of the worst humanitarian
crisis in the world uh the crisis in the
Norths uh has not been getting
sufficient attention in terms of uh
resourcing and of course everybody knows
that the area has been going through
conflict over the past 2 years until the
peace deal was done and uh that has
resulted in uh definitely a need for um
you know people to really uh make their
livelihoods and uh the very fact that
food was not really coming up to the
level that is required and this coupled
with uh the drought situation and the
desert Locust infestation all these
factors playing against the people's
livelihoods situation have become really
really worth for the area that's why we
came up with this um press release
trying to really remind the whole world
that food assistance is really really
very very pertinent at this particular
time but people are really going hungry
if uh sufficient amount of food is not
coming to the Country Now Ethiopian
officials have been accused of running a
massive Aid theft scheme of of actually
stealing the aid what can you tell us
about that
well we're not up to that in terms of
how the food was being managed by
different uh stakeholders in the in the
in the whole process but what we know is
people were not really getting
sufficient resources of course uh food
suspension was made by us and the un uh
following the accusation but for us to
be honest uh we we really need to look
at it from the perspective of of those
who need uh who are in need whether the
theft that is being claimed is right or
wrong is a different matter but as
humanitarians what we need is the action
has resulted in a tremendous tremendous
chaotic situation for those who are in
need how how much how much more Aid is
needed to address the food shortage in
the region and do you think that Aid can
be made available and delivered in time
to avert an even bigger
disaster no I
mean to do something that rather than
not doing is always better yes
definitely uh a lot has been because of
the suspensions the situation has
aggravated and as I said earlier it has
been aggravated because of the the
crisis the the drought situation as well
and people who have been in Conflict for
two years who have not been able to
really plant and uh go through the
normal agricultural practices
whatever they need is you know uh some
food to come to the to the to to the
country and it's not only to to the
country basically to the whole I mean to
the region but basically to the whole of
the country the aid that is coming is
really diminishing as we know only 34%
of the humanitarian appeal by the UN has
been funded over the past year right
this would mean quite a lot it's a
serious problem uh gah GI thank you very
much for talking with us today from Adis
Ababa thank you very much for taking
this very seriously and uh getting it to
the rest of the
world