Ethiopia Famine: 40th Anniversary

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, it is difficult to follow such a powerful speech. Like others, I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for securing this debate and reminding us of a couple of things: first, those terrible events 40 years ago and, secondly, just how old some of us are getting, yet we remember those days as if they were yesterday. As we mark this solemn 40th anniversary of the famine, we must not forget, as a number of other speakers, including the noble Lord, Lord Alton, have reminded us, the present situation in Ethiopia and surrounding countries.

In April this year, 21 million Ethiopian people needed food assistance—these numbers just get larger every time; they almost fade into insignificance, with a million here and a billion there. In this case, that would be about a third of the population of the UK. From these Benches, we offer our full support to the Government in taking constructive measures to support those many vulnerable communities in Ethiopia and highlighting the urgency to act.

The World Food Programme’s ramped-up efforts in February of this year were desperately needed to prevent the already severe food shortages becoming a major humanitarian catastrophe. According to the FAO and the World Food Programme, Ethiopia is predicted to be among the top five hungriest countries from June to October of this year. It was solemn to hear many contributors saying that this is not an accidental disaster; it is entirely man-made. The poor women and children are those who suffer, but it is usually made by men.

To what can we attribute the causes of this? Sadly, of course, it is the usual suspects of armed conflict, communal violence, flooding and localised crop production shortfalls. The friction between civilians, militias and Ethiopian federal forces has led to states of emergency in many parts of the country. The Ethiopian authorities, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, reminded us, have imposed curfews and restrictions on people’s movement. These appear to have worsened the situation in many respects by affecting livelihoods, access to market and important trade flows.

In April this year, the previous Government pledged to provide life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians. I take on board the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, that it was not enough; nevertheless, we did do that. The UK Government pledged to cover the deficit in nutrition supplies, to increase safe water and sanitation, and to provide emergency funding to help improve food security and resilience in Ethiopia’s vulnerable areas. Now that we have a new Government in office, I very much hope to hear the Minister confirm that that work to improve Ethiopian food security will continue. I hope that they will be able to keep to the promises that the previous Government made—I am sure they will, but it will be interesting to hear that confirmed by the Minister—and continue to act in the best interests of the Ethiopian people.

Let me also ask the Minister a couple of other questions. First, much of the Government’s current support is for short-term relief efforts, rightly, as we have just heard. But in addition, how can the Government best support the long-term resolutions, which will solve the problem only in the longer term, and what support can they give to institutions that will aim to resolve Ethiopia’s long-term food insecurity?

Secondly, would food aid and other current government pledges be best provided alongside diplomatic assistance to help resolve internal conflicts? If so, how can the Government best support existing NGO and IGO schemes to assist in conflict resolution? How can they effectively monitor the success and impacts of the aid that is given to Ethiopia and what metrics will they use?

According to the World Food Programme, South Sudan and Sudan are more severely affected by food insecurity. We had an excellent debate on that subject recently, so how do the provisions for and response in Ethiopia compare with those that will be given to other African countries? I very much look forward to hearing the Minister’s response to those questions and some of the others posed in the debate.