Ethiopian famine

Press, 5 June 1978, Page 6

Ethiopian famine

f ’NZPA Addis Ababa Ethiopia’s north-central Wollo province, where an estimated 200,000 people died at the height of the 1972 Ethiopian drought disaster, has again been struck j by severe famine affecting (“between 600,000 and one j million people. -I Official reports said be-! H tween 140 and 200 people in i the province had been J crippled by feeding on crops 1 i contaminated by a poisonous 3 parasitical fungus. 1 The Ethiopian head of 3 State (Colonel Mengistu ‘ Haile Mariam) has ordered "{the immediate formatitfn of "| a national committee to 1

recommend emergency and long-term plans to deal wjth the crisis, reports say. Cargo planes, helicopters, and 100 lorries have reportedly been mobilised to ferry food supplies and medicine to the region, and three airstrips are under construc- : tion. { The new crisis was said to ■have been caused by overi! cultivation, reckless deforesi tation, land exposure io floods, and the absence of ; adequate infrastructures. The mysterious new disfl ease was described as a type i of “ergot poisoning” which I blocked the circulatory sysfitem, causing withering of > the limbs.