Famine Stalks Its Old Haunts

Desperate famine-relief efforts are being mounted in Ethiopia and the Sudan as drought, compounded by civil warfare, threatens 4 million persons with imminent starvation. It is a replay in many ways of the disaster of 1984, with less global attention but just as many lives at risk.

After four months of delay, the Sudanese government has finally authorized re-establishment of Operation Lifeline, a United Nations program to feed 500,000 persons facing famine in the southern region. Another million in western Sudan are caught in a major drought.

With 2 million lives hanging in the balance, the first famine-relief convoy moved across battle lines in northern Ethiopia Tuesday with 110 tons of donated food for the people of Tigray province. Another 1 million Ethiopians are facing starvation in Eritrea, the northernmost province, as relief teams work to restore supply lines broken by the war for independence there.

Government troops of Ethiopia and forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, engaged in a 25-year-old guerrilla war, refused a formal cease-fire but withheld their fire as the 11 relief trucks rolled to a staging area in northern Wollo province, crossing the battlefront for the first time. Catholic Relief Services and the Lutheran World Federation, which supplied the convoy, now are recruiting additional trucks. The flow of international aid has been handicapped by the closing of the port of Massawa, crippled in the warfare, but an adequate short-term supply is on hand.

Despite the dimensions of the emergency, commitments from foreign government donors are missing. The United States, which has responded with a $70-million pledge, can play a useful role at this critical juncture, encouraging other donors while reassuring the people at risk that Washington will make up any shortfall.