Editing 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia (section)

== Background ==
{{see also|"Red Terror" Martyrs' Memorial Museum}}
[[File:FAO kcal his.png|thumb|300px|Food Supply (Energy base)<ref>FAO [http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/download/FB/FB/E FAOSTAT] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202235055/http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/download/FB/FB/E |date=2 December 2013 }}</ref> These are supplied values, intake values are about 60–70% of supplied energy. <br />Other areas (Yr 2010):<ref>FAO [http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x3936e/x3936e03.htm  Food Security]</ref><br />
Africa, sub-Sahara: 2170 kcal/capita/day<br />
N.E. and N. Africa: 3120 kcal/capita/day<br />
South Asia: 2450 kcal/capita/day]]

Throughout the [[Ethiopian Empire|feudal era]], famines were common in Ethiopia, especially in the north.<ref name="De Waal" /> Local famines were also frequent but also unrecorded.<ref name="De Waal" /> The most infamous was the "Great Ethiopian Famine" which killed approximately one third of Ethiopia's population between 1888 and 1892.<ref name="De Waal">{{Cite book|last=De Waal|first=Alex|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_15CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT190|title=Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine|date=2017-12-08|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-5095-2470-9|pages=190|language=en}}</ref><ref name="CBC">{{Cite news|last=Moloo|first=Zahra|title=Ethiopia's unforgettable famines: Here's why they really happen|work=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]|url=https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/features/ethiopias-unforgettable-famines-heres-why-they-really-happen}}</ref> In 1958, famine killed 100,000 people.<ref name="De Waal" /> In 1966, famine killed 50,000.<ref name="De Waal" />

In 1973, drought and feudal extractions caused a famine that killed 40,000 to 200,000 people in [[Wollo]], mostly of the marginalized [[Afar people|Afar]] herders and [[Oromo people|Oromo]] tenant farmers, who suffered from the widespread confiscation of land by the wealthy classes and government of Emperor [[Haile Selassie]].<ref name="De Waal" /> Despite attempts to suppress news of this famine, leaked reports contributed to the undermining of the government's legitimacy and served as a rallying point for dissidents, who complained that the wealthy classes and the Ethiopian government had ignored both the famine and the people who had died.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/feeding-on-ethiopias-famine-1189980.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/feeding-on-ethiopias-famine-1189980.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Feeding on Ethiopia's famine |work=The Independent |location=London |date=8 December 1998}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Then in 1974, a group of military officers known as the [[Derg]] [[1974 Ethiopian coup d'état|overthrew Haile Selassie]]. The Derg addressed the Wollo famine by creating the [[Relief and Rehabilitation Commission]] (RRC) to examine the causes of the famine and prevent its recurrence, and then [[Land reform in Ethiopia|abolishing feudal tenure]] in March 1975. The RRC initially enjoyed more independence from the Derg than any other ministry, largely due to its close ties to foreign donors and the quality of some of its senior staff.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} As a result, insurgencies began to spread into the country's administrative regions.{{sfn|de Waal|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/faminecrimespoli00dewa/page/106 106–09]}}

By late 1976 insurgencies existed in all of the country's fourteen administrative regions.{{sfn|Ofcansky|Berry|1993|p=43}} The [[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]] (1976–1978) marked the beginning of a steady deterioration in the economic state of the nation, coupled with extractive policies targeting rural areas.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} The reforms of 1975 were revoked and the [[Agricultural Marketing Corporation]] (AMC) was tasked with extracting food from rural peasantry at low rates to placate the urban populations.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} The very low fixed price of grain served as a disincentive to production, and some peasants had to buy grain on the open market in order to meet their AMC quota. Citizens in Wollo, which continued to be stricken with drought, were required to provide a "famine relief tax" to the AMC until 1984. The Derg also imposed a system of travel permits to restrict peasants from engaging in non-agricultural activities, such as petty trading and migrant labor, a major form of income supplementation.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} However, the collapse of the system of State Farms, a large employer of seasonal laborers, resulted in an estimated 500,000 farmers in northern Ethiopia losing a component of their income. Grain [[wholesale|wholesaling]] was declared illegal in much of the country, resulting in the number of grain dealers falling from between 20,000 and 30,000 to 4,942 in the decade after the revolution.{{sfn|de Waal|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/faminecrimespoli00dewa/page/110 110–11]}}

The nature of the RRC changed as the government became increasingly authoritarian. Immediately after its creation, its experienced core of technocrats produced highly regarded analyses of Ethiopian famine and ably carried out famine relief efforts. However, by the 1980s, the Derg had compromised its mission.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} The RRC began with the innocuous scheme of creating village workforces from the unemployed in state farms, and government agricultural schemes but, as the counter-insurgency intensified, the RRC was given responsibility for a program of forced [[Resettlement and villagization in Ethiopia|resettlement and villagization]].{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} As the go-between for international aid organizations and foreign donor governments, the RRC redirected food to government militias, in particular in [[Eritrea]] and [[Tigray Province|Tigray]]. It also encouraged international agencies to set up relief programs in regions with surplus grain production, which allowed the AMC to collect the excess food.{{citation needed |date=October 2011}} Finally, the RRC carried out a disinformation campaign during the 1980s famine, in which it portrayed the famine as being solely the result of drought and [[overpopulation]] and tried to deny the existence of the armed conflict that was occurring precisely in the famine-affected regions. The RRC also claimed that the aid being given by it and its international agency partners were reaching all of the famine victims.{{sfn|de Waal|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/faminecrimespoli00dewa/page/111 111–12]}}

The [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]]-led [[military dictatorship]] ([[Derg]]) used this 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia as government military policy by restricting food supplies for strategy against the counter-insurgency of the [[Tigray People's Liberation Front]]'s guerrilla-soldiers, and for "social transformation" in non-insurgent areas (against people of Tigray province, Welo province and such).{{sfn|de Waal|1991|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RcVFXUwraxsC/page/n270 4–6]}}{{sfn|Young|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S9LX8UpI97MC&pg=PA132 132]}}<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/peter_gill_famine_and_foreigners_ethiopia_sincebook4you.pdf |title= Peter Gill, page.43 "Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid" |access-date= 2 March 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180516155623/http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/peter_gill_famine_and_foreigners_ethiopia_sincebook4you.pdf |archive-date= 16 May 2018 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Due to organized government policies that deliberately multiplied the effects of the famine, around 1.2&nbsp;million people died in Ethiopia from the famine where the majority of the death tolls were from the present day Tigray Region and Amhara Region and other parts of northern [[Ethiopia]].<ref name="Ethiopia Since Live Aid"/><ref name="Red Tears"/>{{sfn|de Waal|1991|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RcVFXUwraxsC/page/n22 5]}}

Before the 1983–1985 famine, two decades of wars of [[Eritrean War of Independence|national liberation]] and other anti-government conflict had raged throughout northern Ethiopia and present-day [[Eritrea]]. The most prominent feature of the fighting was the use of indiscriminate violence against civilians by the Ethiopian Army and Air Force.{{sfn|de Waal|1991|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RcVFXUwraxsC/page/n269 3]}} Excluding those killed by famine and [[Resettlement and villagization in Ethiopia|resettlement]], more than 150,000 people were killed.{{sfn|de Waal|1991|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RcVFXUwraxsC/page/n269 3]}}

The [[economy of Ethiopia]] is based on [[agriculture]]: almost half of GDP, 60% of exports, and 80% of total employment come from agriculture.<ref name=CIA>[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ethiopia/ Ethiopia: Economy], CIA World Factbook, 2009</ref>