ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ahead of this week's G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland, the musician and global poverty campaigner Bob Geldof has returned to Ethiopia to highlight the issue of famine and climate change – 28 years after his charity appeals first made world headlines.
The singer said G8 leaders have failed to adhere to aid targets set at the Gleneagles summit in 2005.
The G8 "is capable of contributing to end" poverty, he said.
He also acknowledged that people may have grown tired of his campaigning, but said even basic projects such as the irrigation ditch he was inspecting, saved lives. "I know people are like...'Oh, Geldof, give it a break' but the facts is these people [here] are not dead."
Geldof was one of the key figures behind the Band Aid fundraising music project, launched in 1984 after Ethiopia suffered a devastating famine.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Vatican allows mobster to be exhumed as cops seek clues in teen's disappearance
- Mexico's drug war: No sign of 'light at the end of the tunnel'
- Troops capture senior Kony commander
- Palestinian prisoners agree to end hunger strike
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world