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The pictures are wrenching, if grimly familiar: children with bloated bellies and matchstick legs, mothers with despair in their dull eyes trying to nurse into life emaciated babies, elderly refugees crumpled on mats while flies swarm around open sores. After no rain for three years, the exaggerations are also familiar: eight million Ethiopians said to be on the brink of starvation and 315,000 tonnes of foodstocks that have simply disappeared.

There are also figures so sickening that aid agencies and officials in Addis Ababa are concealing what should be made brutally apparent if lives are to be saved. Ethiopia has an army of 400,000 men that costs over £630,000 a day to sustain. It has enough lorries to move all the grain that can be shipped, though most are now carrying arms and men to the Eritrean war zone. And an Aids epidemic, killing 300,000 people a year, has been ravaging the most economically productive part of the population with barely a mention by the Government and no credible public awareness campaign. Few governments have so failed their people, so failed to learn from past disasters and so failed in the choice between hubris and humanity as the ruling clique around Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa.

Growing scepticism attends the efforts of the United Nations, aid agencies and Western governments to rescue Africa from the seemingly endless cycle of droughts, floods, pestilence and poverty. But when deception proves the sceptics right, the task seems almost insuperable. Very many nomadic tribesmen in the southeastern Ogaden region have lost cattle, crops and entire livelihoods to drought.

But the numbers are well short of the totals now being used as accusatory statistics to blackmail donors into providing the cash and aid essential to bolstering Ethiopia's ability to mount a new offensive along its northern border.

Food aid is available, and has been sent. Speaking for the European Union, Chris Patten says the "pipeline is full", and Britain, among others, has just announced a further donation to bring this year's total, from Britain alone, to 16,840 tonnes. But Ethiopia refuses to allow shippers to use the Eritrean port of Assad, and insists on channelling it through Djibouti and Berbera, a small Somali port that civil war has left barely viable.

Distribution is so hampered by bureaucracy, tribal suspicion and the commandeering of transport for the war that even Kofi Annan, a man who normally cloaks the truth in tact, remarked bluntly that the Government was partly responsible for delays-a remark that prompted denials in Ethiopia that there was any connection between the drought and the war.

There is indeed no causal connection. But the war has so preoccupied Addis Ababa that little effort has been made to avert what is a regular and predictable natural catastrophe by stockpiling emergency aid, undertaking large-scale irrigation works and directing international assistance to the most deprived areas.

Other African countries have also suffered drought or floods, but are tackling their setbacks imaginatively; Mozambique has shown how a responsive Government can make the most of international sympathy.

Ethiopia blames "technical difficulties" on the failure to implement the proposed peace process.

Its case against Eritrea may be strong, but its stance is suicidal. Belligerence is the surest way to alienate donors. Many, nobly, will continue to help the helpless victims of an irresponsible Government. But compassion has only limited leverage; saving lives depends largely on Ethiopia itself.

Readers are encouraged to consult the report to verify for themselves: SPECIAL REPORT: FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO ETHIOPIA, January 2000

Other errors in the article include suggesting that there is a lack of transport due to trucks being commandeered to supply the war front or a problem with port congestion at Djibouti. But as the Addis Tribune pointed out last Friday:

“Ethiopian officials say they would love to have to deal with the problem of overcrowded ports and inadequate transport. They don’t have to because the food hasn’t been coming. Many truckers are idle. Last month there was a demonstration by truckers in Addis to complain about not having any business.”

“Some donors have pointed to the war or lack of port facilities or lack of transport as reasons for the food not coming. To editorialize for a moment, this is nonsense. A quick check with Djibouti officials and recent assessments shows that there is plenty of extra capacity right now. A fourth giant crane has been added to the Djibouti port facilities. Despite the arrival of about 50,000 metric tons of fertilizer, the port is not overburdened.”

However this article is right on target when it says: “Few governments have so failed their people, so failed to learn from past disasters and so failed in the choice between hubris and humanity as the ruling clique around Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa.”

In the final analysis, the responsibility lies with the Ethiopian government to do whatever it takes to prevent Ethiopian children from dying of starvation. But the Meles government was preoccupied with celebrating some anniversary of a political party that represents less than 5% of the Ethiopian people.

Meles could have gone to Gode and taken direct control of the emergency. He could have ensured that food available at Nazret was delivered to Gode. He could have personally lobbied the donor countries for emergency action. He could have directed Ethiopian embassies to alert the Ethiopian diaspora to the problem and to mobilize support from them.

Instead he went to Adwa to open a 600 million Birr factory in his hometown and celebrate a political anniversary which is of zero relevance to the rest of the Ethiopian people. This is why he deserves the condemnation he is receiving. If he cannot or will not use the power of his office to save Ethiopia’s children he should get out of the way and let someone else do the job.