Free Republic

ADDIS ABABA, May 31 — Live Aid founder Bob Geldof accused western donors on Saturday of ''criminal negligence'' in drought-afflicted Ethiopia, saying a lack of aid had already killed tens of thousands of people. Aid agencies estimate 14 million Ethiopians are at risk of starvation after the worst drought in almost two decades. There is no official figure of how many people have already died from drought-related causes. On the last day of a visit to the Horn of Africa country, Geldof said the situation in some areas was worse than he had witnessed in 1985, when famine in the...

Bob Geldof proclaimed last week that George W Bush is the best US President for Africa since John F Kennedy. In the run-up to the G8 Summit in the French town of Evian, which starts today, Bush announced a massive $15bn over five years to fight HIV/Aids. The question is, does this constitute a genuine watershed in the way the world's richest country and the rest of the G8 nations approach Africa's problems? Does it really mark a break with the past and a new hope for Africa?Any overview of the immense challenges facing Africa must put the HIV/Aids pandemic...

Here we are again. I have been seeing again thin children, sick children, children who will not be alive next year. With Unicef I have been visiting villages who are looking famine in the face and people who face collapse with a weak resignation. There is a sickening sense of deja vu but times have moved on, and the problems have moved on. We need different solutions now, other, more permanent solutions. The seven men from the rich world who meet at the G8 summit on Sunday need to get their minds round it. In the Eighties there was famine,...