At least two million Ethiopians in the southeast region of the country are on the brink of famine due to an ongoing drought. The British aid agency Oxfam reported Monday that many children and elderly people have died because of the lack of food and aid. The region has been without significant rainfall for three years.

United Nations agencies have put the total number of Ethiopians at risk from famine at eight million. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced last week that at least half of the aid targeted to fight famine in the Horn of Africa would now go to Ethiopia
 

Starving Herders Attacked by Lions...03/22/00

Within the past three weeks, at least 27 herders in Kenya's Northeastern Province have died of starvation or have been left so weakened by hunger that they have been attacked by marauding lions. Dozens of livestock have also perished from hunger or fallen prey to the hungry lions. Ongoing drought in the country is threatening more than 57,000 people.

A Red Cross team is assessing the famine in the Wajir District in the northeast, where no rain has fallen for three years, as well as the Turkana District in northwestern Kenya. Leaders from both districts have issued appeals to the government to declare the areas disaster zones. The local hospital in Wajir is overrun with residents who are not seeking treatment, but food.

Numerous outlying communities have been deserted by those looking for food and water. Many elderly cannot travel and are forced to wait for aid. Witnesses reported that many of them are too weak to travel
even two miles to Wajir for emergency supplies.

Jamaica in Grips of Drought...03/22/00

The island of Jamaica is battling a devastating drought that has left reservoirs dried up and crops wilted.
After the annual rainfall dropped to a fourth of its normal levels in some areas, authorities have been forced to devise plans for importing water to parched farms.

The normally lush Caribbean island is facing an impending shortage of vegetables. Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke said the situation was, "disastrous right throughout the island, especially with regard to domestic agriculture."

The National Drought Committee has requested the 2.5 million residents of the island to conserve water during the emergency. Water levels at Jamaica's Hermitage Dam were almost half of normal when they were measured last Friday.

Mitch Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangesTV.com