Throughout history and continuing into the present day, famines have struck many areas of the world in devastating ways. The majority of those countries where famines occur are in Africa, including the country most often connected to famine to those living in the Western World, Ethiopia. This strong association is in direct regards to the Ethiopian famine crisis of 1984-1985, during which approximately six million Ethiopians were either killed or severely affected by malnutrition and medical ailments associated with improper eating habits and nutrient intake.
The Ethiopian famine crisis was the result of many factors building up over the years. One contributing factor to the famine was the droughts that have plagued the Horn of Africa for many decades. In fact, drought first began to have an effect on Ethiopia in the years 1973 and 1974, when 200,000 people died in what is known as the “hidden famine.” (Novicki, 47) In 1983, the drought that would highly contribute to the infamous famine crisis began building up. Although severe droughts did factor in highly in the famine, many people wrongly accuse them of being the number one contributor. Rather, the factor that actually had the greatest effect on Ethiopia’s famine was the counties’ twenty years long civil war in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigre (Milner). ... “God makes drought,” an old saying goes, “Man makes famine.” (Caputo, 100) The main point is that no one factor can be pinpointed as the root cause of the Ethiopian famine crisis. As Caputo further explained, “centuries of bad agricultural practices, decades of neglect, and years of war” all contributed to the Ethiopian famine crisis of 1984-1985 (Caputo, 117).
In understanding the Ethiopian famine crisis, one must first understand what exactly are the effects of extreme food deprivation, to both the affected person and the country. ... An important fact to point out when discussing medical ailments associated with famine is that food alone cannot cure the effects of severe hunger. ... Also, because the number of those sick was so extremely high, almost every family was directly affected by the famine. ...
One of the biggest questions and conflicts surrounding the Ethiopian famine crisis was “Where was both the rest of the world and the Ethiopian government during such an overwhelming crisis?” The are a couple answers to this question, but the root of all of them is that many sources of aid relief knew right away of the hunger problem, but almost no one did anything about it until the problem had become an all-out crisis.
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