Severe drought leaves millions relying on emergency aid

There's an eerie silence in the desert landscape of Ethiopia'seastern rim, the lands stretching towardneighbouring Somalia andthe Gulf of Aden beyond it.

It's more of an absence, really, and it takes a while to put yourfinger on it.Then it hits. No livestock. If you do see them, they're fewand far between, their ribs sunken, just like the dry river-beds snakingacross the savannah.

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Even the famously robust camels lookfrail in this part of theworld, as if they might crumple and blow away with the wind.

Ethiopia is currently in the grip of itsworst drought in 50 years, and more than 10 million people are relying on emergency food aidprovided by the government and international aid agencies.

Otherfacts:

• TheEthiopian governmentandinternationalNGOshave launched a $1.4-billion appeal to dealwith the crisis, but only about half that amount has been raised so far.
• In December 2015, Canada announced it would contribute $30 million in emergency humanitarian assistance funding to several UN agencies andNGOsworking in Ethiopia. A separate $73 million has been earmarked for development assistance in the coming year.
• In 2015, Canada ranked as the fifth-largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia.
• This week, the EU announced 122.5 millioneurosin extra aid.
• The UN and other aid agencies are in the middle of a 90-day campaign to raise awareness of the additional funding needed to "address the humanitarian resource gap."

Hundreds of thousands of herd animals are thought to haveperished in this part of the country over the course of three failedrainy seasons. The knock-on effect for the people depending on themis devastating.

"This is really very difficult," saidAbdul Shakour Abdel Fetah, standing in front of a single patch ofgreen in an endless desert of dust.

He's a local official in the Sitti Zone of the Somali region ofEthiopia, showing us a project to help pastoralists who've lost theirlivestock shift focus to sustainable farming. "All animals perishedactually," he said.

No cows, no milk

The government project is relying on boreholes tapping into thetable water to irrigate land slated for development.But it's hard toimagine anything growing easily in conditions so unforgivingly hotwithout more water.

Local health workers in the worst-affected regions have set upweighing stations for children. About 430,000children are estimated to be suffering from acutemalnutrition.

We met a mother named Deka Adem who brought her two-year-old Bishar to a health station when he became dull and listless.

The nurses say Bisharis also suffering from diarrhea anddehydration, likely from drinking unclean water.

Adem said part of the problem was that there was no milkbecause their one cow was getting weak for lack of food.

More than 70%live off the land

Finding clean drinking water is a major challenge, with peoplespending hours walking every day to reach water stations or boreholes.Nobody goes without carrying a yellow jerry can to fill up, andpeople with donkeys are the kings of the road.

Ethiopian drought takes its toll

9 years ago

Duration 1:03

Livestock herders in eastern Ethiopia are struggling to feed their animals amid a worsening drought

Many of those who can't find food, water or work, and canafford to get there, try to head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's bustlingcapital.

The country enjoys one of the fastest growth rates on the Africancontinent, earning it the moniker "The Lion of Africa."

Anti-poverty efforts stepped up

But more than 70 per centof Ethiopians live off the land and itremains a country mired in poverty despite government efforts to cutit in recent years.

"The government of Ethiopia is doing a super job on bringingall sorts of their budget towards this problem," Canada's ambassador to Ethiopia, Phillip Baker, said in an interview. Baker isa former regional director general for CIDA's Southern and EasternAfrica division.

"Ethiopia tends to do the highest proportion of its budget inAfrica towards pro-poor policies so they've got the right idea now,and they've been putting these programs in place, but they still needhelp," he said.

Even irrigation networks in some parts of the country, whichare more plentiful and established, however small inscale, arein trouble.

In the district of Dugda, a few hours drive south of Addis, you'llcome across some of the region's famed lakes, but the water is clearlyreceding.

We met a mother of six named LomiAbu at an aid distributioncentre where Canadian aid dollars are at work through a charitycalled the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

The organization receives some funding from Ottawa which hasearmarked $73 million worth of development assistance forEthiopia in the 2015-16 fiscal year. That's in addition to $30million worth of emergency humanitarian assistanceannounced in December.

Abu saidher life over the past year has inverted her existence,from being someone who used to be able to help others, to one relyingon food aid.

"If we don't have enough rain, we will [have to ] send away ourchildren to be shepherds and workers in the house and fields ofwealthy families."

Standing in front of her round, grass hut near the aid site, shesaid she can no longer feed her children three times a day andworries about the impact on their development.

Hundreds of women waited all day, for their turn to register forassistance, shielding themselves from the sun under parasols in turnshielded by a large round tree.

Men unloaded giant sacks of grain with Canada written acrossthem.

People told us it was the first time since the great famine of 1984 that thecommunity had to rely on food aid.

Those oldenough to remember it, fear it.

"We lost all of our cows and animals,"said 68-year-old Yao Tufa, a man in a suit and safari hat whosays he walked 20 kilometresto get to the aid site. "We also lost a lot of people. The help of the foreigners saved our lives."

Too late in asking for help?

Some critics have accused Ethiopia of waiting too long to askfor international aid, mindful of being portrayed as a country alwayson the edge of starvation.

Speaking at the site, Jim Cornelius, executive director of theCanadian Foodgrains Bank, said it's important for people tounderstand how much Ethiopia has changed since the days of thatfamine, fuelled not just by drought, but by civil war.

"People haven't really realized that Ethiopia has madetremendous progress since then.It's not just a place of constanthunger. But this is a particularly severe drought. It's stretchingpeople way beyond their normal coping mechanisms. But the goodnews is that we've seen it coming."

Maybe so.But the government and aid agencies remain farshort of their joint appeal for $1.4 billion USto meet thedemands of the next few months.

And this week Ethiopia's National Disaster Risk ManagementCommission said the number of districts severely affected by thedrought has risen by nearly 20 per centover the past three months.