Press Association | By Tim Ross | May 30, 2003
Bob Geldof returned today to the area of Ethiopia worst hit by the 1984 famine.
His visit nearly 20 years' ago led him to mount the Live Aid campaign to help millions of starving people.
The former Boomtown Rats musician began a two-day visit to Ethiopia's northern highlands with aid charity Save the Children as part of a wider tour of the country to highlight the latest food emergency.
Recent projections warned that up to 12.5 million people in the country may need food help this year, the charity said.
The international community must step up efforts to avoid another catastrophe, said Save the Children's Peter Hawkins, who worked with Geldof in the 1984 crisis.
Mr Hawkins, the charity's regional director, said: "It's tragic Bob Geldof has had to go out and provide a marker for the world once again.
"The only way to break Ethiopia's cycle of poverty and famine is to address the long-term situation affecting the country.
"It is this failure to offer long-term development aid and access to fair trade rules that world leaders at the G8 must commit to this weekend."
While visiting the Sekota area, Geldof was being shown a newly launched Save the Children programme that aims to address issues which cause recurring drought emergencies in Ethiopia.
The project is designed to link short term emergency food relief to long term development through creating land enclosures so grasslands can grow back, and developing livestock and new cropping.Press Association:
