- Ethiopia's 'green famine' takes its toll

Ethiopia's 'green famine' takes its toll

AFP - October 15, 2008

Okume Ochubo's tiny plot of land in southern Ethiopia is lush with waist-high maize sprouts and other crops, but she and her seven young children are struggling to feed themselves.

"We cannot survive without food aid, we collect assistance whenever it is available," she said, as two of her children jostled under the shadows of giant eucalyptus trees.

"We are praying to God for a better situation," the 40-year-old farmer added, her voice barely audible under the breeze of swaying maize leaves.

Okume is one of millions of people in the Horn of Africa nation -- a country with a long history of extreme food shortages -- who are at renewed threat of hunger as a result of failed and delayed rains. Read More.