Minister says donors need "skeletons on screens" to react

Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin on Tuesday lambasted wealthy countries, and Europe in particular, for what he said was a slow and inadequate response to a looming disaster, of which he had warned them back in December. "This is Africa, and the situation in Africa always gets a response from Europe or the international community when people start to see skeletons on
screens," Mesfin told reporters at the EU-Africa Heads of State Summit in Egypt. He dismissed the argument that the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea was hampering the relief effort, Reuters news agency reported. "I tell you this is not a problem. Access is absolutely not the problem ... This false linkage should go away; people should focus on the real problem, and the
real problem is that the international response is very slow," Mesfin said. The worst affected areas were in the southeast of the country where there was no fighting, he added.