Bob Geldof - In the News

Geldof goes back to Ethiopia to highlight famine and AIDS
The Irish Examiner 27 May 2003
By Simon Baker and Emma Britton

ROCK star Bob Geldof yesterday criticised Western governments for failing Africa, as he headed back to Ethiopia to again highlight the plight of millions of people facing starvation.
Mr Geldof, who is returning to Ethiopia nearly 20 years after his first visit inspired Band Aid and Live Aid, described current food donations especially from the EU as "pathetic".

Figures from the UN children's aid agency, UNICEF, suggest Ethiopia is in the middle of a humanitarian emergency, with 14 million people, many of them children, dependent on food aid.

His five-day mission is timed to raise public interest ahead of the G8 summit of the main industrialised nations in Evian, France, on June 1, in order to kick-start action from political leaders.

The former Boomtown Rat said: "The G8 meeting is next week and I think it is going to be somewhat characterised by political spite and backbiting over what has happened in Iraq.

"But meanwhile, further south is another country which is facing an utter catastrophe because it has failed to receive over two-thirds of the food requirements that have been promised."

He said he recognised that the US and British governments were helping to improve the situation in Africa, but he added that it was wrong to make the fight on terrorism a priority.

"If there is a war on terror then there has to be a war on poverty," he said.

A spokeswoman for UNICEF added: "The reason he is going is to give a wake-up call to the international community before the G8 meeting next week, and to make sure that people do not forget that there are other countries having problems."

She said: Geldof had planned to travel to Ethiopia on a personal visit to highlight the crisis facing the country, but had decided to team up with UNICEF.

She added: "This is a much more complex emergency than the drought of 20 years ago, as it is compounded by HIV/AIDS, which has weakened medical systems and coping ability."