On 24 October development minister Bert Koenders will travel to Ethiopia’s Somali region, which has been hit hard by drought. The Ethiopian government today announced that 6.2 million people are now at risk of famine.

Large parts of Ethiopia have been hit by severe drought. The harvest has failed and livestock are dying due to the shortage of food and water.

On Sunday Mr Koenders will meet with members of the Ethiopian government and aid organisations in the Somali region to discuss the growing emergency. The Minister will also visit a World Food Programme distribution centre. The WFP is currently facing an USD 85 million shortfall in the funds needed to provide food aid for six million Ethiopians between now and the end of the year.

‘The situation in Ethiopia is very serious,’ said Koenders. ‘This is partly the result of the current global climate and food crises. We must not allow the Ethiopian people to be the victims of these crises.’

Earlier this year, the Netherlands contributed one million euros to the WFP’s appeal for immediate relief. In addition, the Netherlands is supporting Ethiopian government policy to invest more in agriculture.

Mr Koenders wants not only to draw attention to the food crisis gripping Ethiopia, but also to highlight the precarious position of mothers in developing countries. On Monday he will open a special conference in Addis Ababa on reducing maternal mortality, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals.

The conference, which is being hosted jointly by the United Nations and the Dutch government, is the first global conference to be held on this subject. ‘There is a great deal of lost ground to be made up in reaching this goal,’ Mr Koenders said. ‘Thousands of mothers in developing countries die in or following childbirth. We can do something about this.’

The conference will adopt a plan for concrete action aimed at combating maternal mortality.