Ethiopia asks for urgent food aid

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The Ethiopian government has asked the international community for emergency food aid for 6.2 million people. The request came at a meeting of donors to discuss the impact of a prolonged drought affecting parts of East Africa. BBC correspondent Mike Wooldridge witnessed Ethiopia’s famine in the 80s. Now he’s back, Marco Werman talks with him. Download MP3

• BBC coverage

African famines examined

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Famines often occur during times of drought, but their causes go much deeper than a lack of rain. With East Africa now facing widespread hunger, we look back at a major food crisis that struck the Western African nation of Niger in 2005. Reporter David Hecht examines the roots of that crisis and finds some of them stretching across Niger’s border, to the neighboring country of Nigeria. Download MP3

• 2005 Niger food crisis
• Niger country profile

Norman Borlaug’s life and legacy

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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy Institute, about the life and career of the late Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was an agricultural scientist whose work developing high-yield crops helped prevent famine in the developing world. That earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He died this past weekend.