Threat does not come from outside, charity warns

America’s aid policy to famine-stricken Ethiopia has been labelled as “flawed” by the US charity Save the Children, which warned that the greatest threat to Ethiopia comes from within.

The US was accused of pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars of food aid, while failing to tackle the root causes of the massive recurring crisis.

“This is the greatest national security threat that Ethiopia faces,” warned Save the Children president Charles MacCormack, during a visit to Ethiopia.

“If Ethiopia is destroyed it will not be by an outside enemy,” he told a news conference in Addis Ababa on Monday. “It will be by illiteracy, hunger, disease and AIDS.”

Ethiopia is reeling from a food crisis that has affected 12.6 million people and which aid agencies and the government say is unprecedented in the country’s history.

The US has poured in around US $500 million, but only a fraction has been spent on combating the causes of the crisis such as lack of water and poor education.

“To spend hundreds of millions of dollars on emergency relief every four or five years and then not do enough in between is a flawed approach,” MacCormack said.

“What we are doing is too little too late and we will never solve these problems – it will take forever.”

MacCormack estimated around US $3 billion a year were needed for the next 15 years in Ethiopia – the third poorest country in the world - to prevent future famines.

He called for massive investment in primary health, basic education and in combating the AIDS epidemic. He also urged the US and European Union to overhaul their farm subsidies' policy.

Furthermore, he called for greater emphasis on tackling the enormous population explosion in Ethiopia, which has doubled to 67 million in the last 30 years.