‘Critical time for drought-hit Ethiopia’

THE newly appointed Irish ambassador to Ethiopia has warned that the coming weeks will be critical in determining how the drought-hit country copes with its food shortage.

Síle Maguire, who took up her post a fortnight ago, said the leaders of the country were in a very challenging time.

“They, and the local communities, face extreme difficulties at the moment.

The weeks ahead will be critical,” she said.

The Ethiopian government has been accused overseas of downplaying the crisis in parts of the country by refusing to declare a full-scale famine and Ms Maguire acknowledged there were disagreements over the scale of the problem.

“I know that there are tensions around language and definitions,” she said. “Language is clearly a very sensitive point.”

On the further accusation that the Ethiopian army was stopping convoys of donated food aid, she said Irish Aid’s links with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the ground provided a safeguard against the wrongful diversion of aid.

“If there are issues with this, the Irish embassy is always the first to raise them,” she said.

The Government pledged €36 million in aid to Ethiopia through the Irish Aid programme this year plus about €6m through organisations such as Goal, Concern, Trócaire and Self Help Africa, which are also ploughing in millions more in public donations. The annual aid package has for years been the largest for any country assisted by Irish Aid but Ms Maguire said it could not be assumed Ethiopia would always be granted priority status.

“We always have to question what we do and make sure that the justification is there,” she said.

This would be all the more important in the straitened financial times ahead at home, she added.

Ms Maguire is the first-ever Irish ambassador to Ethiopia. The embassy opened in 1994 but prior to her appointment was headed by a consul.

The decision to upgrade the post coincides Ms Maguire’s additional appointment as first Irish ambassador to the African Union, the fledgling collective of countries attempting to develop along the lines of the EU.

This is Ms Maguire’s first posting at the level of ambassador. Aged 40, single and from Blackrock, Co Dublin, she served previously as deputy to the Irish ambassador in Mexico as well as in senior posts in Madrid and the EU division of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

As well as being responsible for the administration of the Irish Aid programme, Ms Maguire and her staff of 45 — 40 Ethiopian and five Irish — are on hand to assist the small community of long-term Irish residents, about 30-40 people.

While working at the highest levels of the diplomatic profession can put years on an official, Ms Maguire said she was delighted to find her post had already taken years off her.

The Ethiopian calendar runs seven years behind the standard march of time so it is still 2001.