ETHIOPIA: Some 14 million people are facing food shortages in east Africa. Anthony Mitchell reports from West Haraghe in Ethiopia on how people are coping
A small tear rolls down from the eye of three-year-old Nasraden Aman - one of the few indications that he is still alive.
Weakened by hunger after being fed weeds over the last few months, his skin stretches tightly over his skeletal frame. He also has malaria and will be lucky to survive the next few days.
Little Nasraden's hair has fallen out and now his stomach bulges - clear signs of the severe malnutrition which has a stranglehold on millions in Ethiopia.
His mother, Amina Kalifa, tries to breastfeed him despite his years, but months of living on a diet of boiled weeds means she can no longer lactate.
"What can we do," says Amina, holding up his tiny framefrom under her shawl. Three of her children have died already, she says, victims of the drought.
"We have nothing. Our maize will not grow. We need food now. We are forced to eat boiled weeds and have nothing else. No one but animals can survive on this."
Nasraden was carried into Bila, a tiny village in West Haraghe in eastern Ethiopia for his mother to show humanitarian agencies how the drought has affected them. His limbs resemble twigs and look as though they would snap just as easily.
But the lush, green fields that surround his village belie the tragedy. Late rains mean that the green-looking crops will never mature.
Dozens of animal carcasses litter the fields, dusty roadsides and nearby villages.
The area is one of the worst hit with tens of thousands in desperate need of food. But the problem is only going to get worse.
The government now estimates that as many as 14 million people will be in need of food aid in the coming months.
The United Nation's World Food Programme says it will run out of food by the end of the year.
Rations have already been cut. By early next year 2.2 million tons of food will be needed - so far the UN food programme has around 70,000 tons.
For the first three months of 2003 alone 300,000 tons will be needed.
The UN food programme alone needs €80 million worth of food for the first quarter of 2003. It will cost over €700 million to feed 14 million people.
Malnutrition rates in some of the worst affected areas are in excess of 25 per cent. According to World Health Organisation figures 15 per cent is considered critical.
Irish charity Goal is one of the few organisations helping to feed people in West Haraghe. Country director Ms Catherine Fitzgibbon said: "The scale of the crisis is unprecedented. Unless additional resources are allocated urgently, organisations trying to prevent a human catastrophe will not be able to cope."
The Irish Government was also one of the first to react to the drought.
It donated €250,000 to help with an emergency-feeding programme, which was managed by Goal.
At present, some 6 million people need food aid. But the main crop - which should be harvested this month - has almost failed.
Aid workers say the scale of the disaster is far worse than previous famines which have had a devastating impact on the Horn of Africa country because of the size of its population.
Since 1984 - when almost a million people died - it has almost doubled to 65 million with almost all of the population eking out a living as subsistence farmers. Some eight million people were affected by famine in 1984.
Donations for famine relief in Ethiopia may be sent to Goal at PO Box 19, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin