Nature

Ethiopia, is principally a rural society, the verve of peasants is entrenched in the land, from which they make out an insufficient existence. Throughout the years, they have encountered frequent but catastrophic natural disasters, political instability, and armed conflicts, and in the course of these disruptions they have faced hunger, social disruption and death.  Cyclic crop failures and losses of human and livestock frequently take place when recurrent rains fall short or when abnormally intense storms cause flooding (Pankhurst, 1961).

Pastoral nomads, who shift periodically looking for of water and grazing land, often are ensnared when drought hampers rejuvenation of the striped grasslands, which their overgrazing creates.  At some stage in such times, communities or familys crisis provisions shrink rapidly, food shortage and starvation become routine. For years, this has been the common model of existence for most Ethiopians the rebellious engagements in Ogaden, Eritrea and Tigray have only made the effects of these natural calamities to be worse.

It is instrumental to note that, four key Ethiopian provinces namely Hararghe, Wollo, Gojjam and Tigray received in record low rainfalls during this period, complemented by the lack of sufficient government preparations as well as rising insurgencies in the northern part of the country also played as significant role in fuelling the famine (Webb, P.and Braun, J, 1994). This can be attributed to the fact that, the governments counterrevolution in regard to the two separate rebellions involving  Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front in the North and the Oromo Liberation Front in the south. These two incidences forced the government to allot more than 40 of the GDP to the military.

This step almost crippled the economy,hence,the consequences of this famine are said to have witnessed a significant number of Ethiopians free to the neighboring countries while a documented record indicate more than a million people died as result of this disaster. The insecurity in affected zones made the passage of food aid to be impossible and this was another indicator that another famine was in the making. Almost 9 million Ethiopians became victims during the 1984-85 droughts, while over 1 million were estimated to be dead. The governments failure to take action to this food crisis aggravated international censure by the international community (Webb, P.and Braun, J, 1994).
The government response to this famine was to relocate the peasants from one zone to the other while withholding food supplies to the rebel areas. This decision saw almost 600,000 peasants being relocated. Too, the prices of available commodities increased considerably, while on the other hand the pastoralists communities refused to sell their herds of livestock and this result in a massive losses and mortality. However, the international community intervention helped in delivering food to the starving people, such countries as the USA, Canada, Germany, and Poland responded by airlifting food and medical supplies to the affected millions.  While by Bob Geldof organized a charity show which had a record viewer ship of almost 300 million people across the globe and mobilized the west countries to support the Ethiopian cause through this show dubbed Live Aid.

In principal, the intervention by international community helped in alleviating the pain and suffering the Ethiopian people were undergoing. Though, the famine was not wiped out in total, but it can be said that the concentrated efforts were 80  successful. In regard to the Ethiopian famines, I am of opinion that, the respective governments should invest in the future of their citizens by encouraging afforestration as well as building food silos. This can be of great help in that the citizens can be taught the importance of not just relying the rains. It would be important also to explore concepts of irrigation in order to divert any future recurrences of the famine. Such measures would be significant in establishing the national food security as well as protecting the environment (Pankhurst, 1961).