ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - At the Babile hospital in eastern Ethiopia the children's ward waspractically empty. Two malnourished children sat with their mothers on thin black mattresses onthe floor.
The empty corridors of a hospital which serves 30,000 people in the heart of an area recentlyhighlighted by UNICEF as a food crisis hotspot demonstrate a fact little known beyond theborders of Ethiopia. Most of the countries affected by the Horn of Africa drought have managedto cope extremely well.
"For three months the media has been reporting this drought to be the worst in 60 years, butwhat they failed to describe is how well we have dealt with it," said Tadesse Bekele, deputydirector of Disaster Risk Management at the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture.
"Nature betrayed us and it has been a difficult time, but we worked hard with our developmentpartners to respond."
While the food crisis in Ethiopia appears to be slowly easing, across the border in Somalia thesituation is very different. Continued fighting between Al Shabaab and Transitional FederalGovernment/African Union Mission forces has made reaching those in need extremelytreacherous.
Somalia now has some of the world's highest malnutrition rates, with three out of 10 childrenunder the age of 5 being acutely malnourished, according to UNICEF.
The US government international development wing, USAID, estimates that 29,000 childrenunder the age of 5 died in the first three months of the drought in Somalia, with that figure nowpresumed to be much higher with the famine intensifying.
"Although it was the same lack of rain that hit the three countries the response was verydifferent," Lynne Miller, deputy country manager of the World Food Programme (WFP) inEthiopia, explained.
"In Kenya and Ethiopia there are structures in place that give us a clear indication of what thefood needs will be in the coming months and we are able to respond. In Somalia there isn'tquite that system in place, there are conflict areas with security issues that make it very difficultto access."
The UN estimates there are currently 13.3 million people across the Horn of Africa in need ofemergency assistance, with 4.5 million in Ethiopia, 3.75 million in Kenya, 4 million in Somaliaand 150,000 in Djibouti.
The situation across the region can be broadly broken down into three different crises, all withdifferent levels of severity and needs.
In Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, where stable governments working with internationaldevelopment organizations have the infrastructure to deal with the drought, the question hassimply been about having the resources to make up for the shortfall in food.
China, which has contributed 342 million yuan ($54 million) in bilateral aid to the threecountries. The response has been successful.
In Somalia, where Al Shabaab controls large areas of the country, the UN has declared faminefor the first time since 1991 in a number of districts.
On Oct 2, Al Shabaab confiscated 10 trucks carrying food aid in one of the worst affectedareas, interrupting the movement of aid and jeopardizing the operations of humanitarianpartners.
Fighting has also intensified around Mogadishu, threatening the livelihoods of nearly half amillion internally displaced people sheltering in the region.
Even with October rains now starting to fall, the UN Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs still estimates the situation in Somalia is set to worsen over the coming months.
The third crisis exists in continually expanding refugee camps outside the borders of Somalia.The influx of Somali refugees into Kenya and Ethiopia continues, although the rate of dailyarrivals to Kenya seems to be decreasing.
In September, an average of 1,000 refugees arrived each day in Dadaab, now the world'sbiggest refugee camp with an estimated half-a-million population, down from a peak of 1,600 aday in June.
In contrast, last week in Ethiopia, the rate of refugee arrivals increased from an average of 250to 450 per day, according to the UNHCR, which supervises the camps.
More than a quarter of Somalia's 9.9 million people have now been displaced from their homes.Nearly a million of them are now outside the countries, putting additional stress on host nations.
Last week the WFP began the distribution of food purchased with a 100 million yuan donationfrom China - the country's largest single donation to WFP humanitarian operations.
The UN organization hopes to use the aid to reach an estimated 1.7 million people desperatelyin need of food, though this will depend on the security situation improving.
The WFP estimates it is currently only reaching about half the people in need of food inSomalia.
Back in Ethiopia, Bekele is confident with the Chinese food shipments now starting to arrivealong with greatly anticipated seasonal rains, the situation is for the time being is under control.
"We had good rains and a reasonable harvest in some areas so, with that expectation, thenumber of food dependent beneficiaries will definitely go down by the end of the year," heclaimed.
Miller of the WFP is also optimistic about the immediate future, however warns "there areincreasing signs of another La Nina event in this area in the next few months which would meananother year of low rainfall, but it is very difficult to predict and be sure how that may play out".
For the immediate future the crisis across the Horn of Africa appears to be focusing on onecountry. As the situation improves in the countries that surround Somalia, the famine inside theunstable nation appears to be worsening.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn
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