AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - Heartfelt appeal of a missionary: "The country is dying of thirst"

Wednesday, 9 March 2016 famine  

CA

Gode (Agenzia Fides) - Ethiopia is the second most populous Country in Africa and one of the world's poorest. Over 400,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition and in recent months drought has severely increased. It is expected that at the end of April, some areas will remain permanently without water. "I have been a missionary in Ethiopia for almost 10 years and this is the first time the Country is dying of thirst", says Father Christopher Hartley in a note sent to Agenzia Fides.
"As a result of the drought - continues Fr. Christopher - there are many tribal struggles for the access to the few remaining sources of water for people and livestock, while the crops are irreversibly disappearing, transforming this enormous landscape in a vast desert.
We have tried to get in touch with the latest wave of refugees to distribute jerry cans, more than twenty tons of food and we have built a small school for children who do not even know how to write their name because they do not go to school". Out of 100 million people throughout Ethiopia, almost two million do not have access to safe water. Over 10 million people are in urgent need of basic survival kits as they lack water, food, seeding and livestock products. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 09/03/2016)


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