Cruelty in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government has put 2 million people at risk of death from famine with its decision to bar foreign-relief workers from its northern provinces while it escalates the stalemated military campaign against rebel forces. It is a callous and shocking action that suggests the government is willing to use starvation where military repression has failed.

Already, there is evidence that distribution of famine relief in the two affected areas, Eritrea and Tigray, has come to a halt. So have the overland and aerial resupply operations that have been adequate, but barely so, to stave off massive deaths and pervasive relocations of the drought-stricken people in recent months. The government’s decision to allow United Nations workers to resume operations in the area is of little help, applying to just four of the dozens relief staff.

The United States, largest supplier of food relief, has asked the Soviet Union, now committed to becoming the second largest supplier, to join the international appeals to the rulers of Ethiopia to allow a resumption of aid to Tigray and Eritrea. The United States is committed to supplying 268,000 tons of food this year, the Soviet Union 250,000 tons--none yet delivered--with the European Community, Canada and the Scandinavian nations the other major donors.

Famine risks are not limited to the provinces caught in the long-term civil wars. Throughout Ethiopia a total of at least 5 million, and perhaps as many as 7 million persons are at risk, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). The flow of relief supplies in the southern portions of the country is moving normally, however, unaffected by the warfare in the north.

Washington is hoping that the Soviet Union will be persuasive with the avowedly Marxist Ethiopia government, which maintains close political and ideological ties with Moscow. In the meantime, AID has decided to begin stockpiling additional supplies of food at the ports of Massawa and Assab so that the food can be moved quickly to starving populations in Eritrea and Tigray should the government relent. A one-month supply will be stockpiled, if possible, but the storage facilities at Assab already are clogged.

The United States relies on private voluntary organizations to distribute the famine-relief supplies. The principal agencies, according to AID, are Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children Federation, CARE, Oxfam U.K. and Food for the Hungry. It is their expatriate staff members who have been ordered out of Tigray and Eritrea. The government has said that they will not be allowed to return until the military victory has been won. A long history of stalemate suggests no early resolution of the civil wars.

In the meantime, the government of Ethiopia has said it will distribute relief supplies at the cities of Asmara and Makelle that it still controls in the two warring provinces but that the distribution will be limited to ruling party members, civil servants and so-called loyal cadres. The supplies are understood to be extremely limited and not adequate to the growing and desperate needs of people outside these cities. The government plan only underscores its failure to meet the crisis responsibly.