Somali region

We got back from Jijiga/Dire Dawa a day early which worked out perfectly because it meant we could go to the election opposition parties rally in Addis today (more about it later but just to say I was pretty stunned by the number of people crammed in Meskel Square - it made the crowd at the Bob Marley concert look small). The three-day trip was fascinating and at times very disturbing. I was very inspired by the passion and the enthusiasm of the UNICEF team. They were a pretty impressive group of individuals. During the trip we were focusing on two things - the flood and the severe malnutrition crisis. The stats that came out on Wednesday said that 136,000 children in Ethiopia are suffering from severe malnutrition. It's hard to appreciate that figure or what severe malnutrition actually is until you see it. We visited a camp in the Somali Region. A woman brought her child out of her hut and I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. The little girl was literally saggy skin and bones. She was two-years-old. I'm not exaggerating to say that she looked more like she was six-months-old. I was deeply shocked to see a human being in this condition and was quite overcome.