The human famine
May 28, 2024 21:00:59 GMT
Post by Stella on May 28, 2024 21:00:59 GMT
I'm going to start off by crediting this poignant image by Tom Stoddart and Getty Images. It was published in 'The Lancet' in November 2008 and appeared in Alex de Waal's article titled 'On famine crimes and tragedies'. It's a snapshot of a man stealing maize from a starving child at a feeding centre in Ajiep, southern Sudan in 1998.
If you read the article you learn that for several weeks in 2004 the small town in Kailak on the southern slopes of Darfur's Jebel Marra was the scene of a massacre by starvation where troops and militiamen torched the surrounding villages, forcing some 17,000 people to flee to the town. The armed men then surrounded the makeshift camp, preventing anyone from leaving. Then they robbed families of their possessions and then beat or shot them if they foraged for food or remains in their homes or sought out leaves and berries in the surrounding forests and woodlands. An age old siege tactic was used against the defenceless civilians.
The situation in Kailak, though extreme, was not unique. Fighting and counter-insurgency at another famine camp in Korem, Ethiopia was captured by BBC footage and this is what in 1984 inspired Bob Geldof to launch BandAid.
These are not the only issues with famines and military action. One of the worst famines in the 21st century has been taking place since 2016 in the Yemeni civil war, which has killed 85,000 children and God knows how many adults. This civil war is further complicated by the intervention of Saudi forces who have been armed by... Western governments. Then you have the situation in Afghanistan, which has been occupied by a Western coalition of forces since 2001, supposedly to fight the Taliban. Yet today 95% of the Afghan population face starvation or food insecurity and may only seek asylum in the West if they are allowed to leave by... the Taliban.
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