Specter of Famine in Ethiopia

A famine as grave as that of 1985 is threatening 5 million Ethiopians, prompting a global appeal for help from United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar. There has been a quick response from the United States and the European Community, but the effectiveness of the relief mission is clouded by civil strife in that country and restrictions imposed by the Ethiopian government.

Food supplies in the northern provinces will be exhausted in the first months of the new year, according to an assessment by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. The impact of the drought has been made worse by the continuing warfare being waged between government forces and guerrilla organizations in both Tigre, where the drought is worst, and Eritrea.

Ethiopian officials have approved a flow of aid to rebel-controlled territory but only through the Joint Relief Program, a consortium of Ethiopian relief groups. This will facilitate the flow of American aid which is sent through Catholic Relief Services, an agency working closely with the joint program. But thus far the Ethiopian government has not approved the flow of aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations into the northern provinces where the civil warfare is raging.

The initial American commitment of 165,000 metric tons of grains is about one-fifth of the estimated total food aid needed for 1990. In addition, the United States is providing food assistance to three other African food crisis areas, Sudan, Mozambique and Angola, all three caught in devastating civil strife.

Deterioration of the food situation in Ethiopia comes at a time when developing nations throughout the world are falling behind in food production. This year, cereal production in the nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America increased only 1%, substantially less than population growth.