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In good years, Ethiopia's southern flatlands are the African nation's breadbasket. This is not a good year. In the small, bone-dry village of Hawzen, several Ethiopian children sit with bloated bellies, staring into space. In nearby Dir Kiltu, 90 miles south of Addis Ababa, a rainwater collection pond is dry and cracked. An old man gulps his first glass of water in two days. Nearby, a teenage girl limps along on pencil-thin legs.

One million people died during Ethiopia's famine of 1984-85, and Congressman Frank Wolf saw some of that horror during a one-week visit. "What I saw—and experienced—changed me forever," the 12-term Virginia Republican said. "I never thought I would see something like that again. I have—last week."

Wolf spoke those words in January after returning from Ethiopia and Eritrea, its small neighbor in the horn of Africa. Wolf cannot believe the nightmare is repeating itself—this time on an even bigger scale—but his eyes confirmed it. Worse, he says, the international community, distracted by the Iraq War and other issues, seems less inclined to help.

Wolf told Christianity Today, "Ethiopia is on the brink of a crisis of biblical proportions."

Short rainfalls last year, poor government planning, the effects of a two-and-a-half-year border war with Eritrea (which split from Ethiopia in 1993), and donor fatigue have worsened the current crisis. About 11.3 million of Ethiopia's of 69 million people face severe malnutrition or starvation. The total could reach 14 million by July.

Two decades ago, 8 million people were at risk in a population of 45 million, but massive world sympathy averted an even greater catastrophe.

Ethiopia has recently received 850,000 tons of food aid, including 289,000 tons from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). But the United Nations World Food Program says existing supplies could run out by June.

Relief experts say the country needs more than 600,000 additional metric tons of cereals, blended foods, and vegetable oil.

The current famine differs significantly from the 1984 crisis, according to Wolf, who serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and three subcommittees. "HIV/AIDS is spreading throughout the country," he said. "Repeated droughts over the years have made the people much more susceptible to disease. The inner turmoil in Somalia and Sudan has brought thousands of refugees into Ethiopia, which can't even meet its own people's needs."

Former Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio visited Ethiopia in February as the U.S. ambassador to United Nations food agencies. "The scenes at the feeding sites were ones of despair and tragedy," Hall told CT. "Mothers had nothing to offer their hungry children. Children, who should have been playing, had no energy to even move. Senior citizens looked decades older than they actually were."

Hall said in his report about the trip, "I am numbed by the sheer numbers of acutely malnourished children. I never thought I would see it as bad as during the Great Famine of 1984-85."

Ethiopia's government, led by President Meles Zenawi, has been asking for international help since last year. USAID, which provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide, started sending food last July. Wolf told CT the United States has donated 58 percent of Ethiopia's food aid, compared with 27 percent from the European Union.

But, he said, America can and must do more. "We have been so blessed as a nation, and as a people, that we must share more of that blessing."

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May 2003, Vol. 47, No. 5