Editing Famine (section)

===20th century===
During the 20th century, an estimated 70 to 120 million people died from [[List of famines|famines across the world]], of whom over half died in China, with an estimated 30 million dying during the [[Great Chinese Famine|famine of 1958–1961]],<ref name=IDSWorkingPaper>{{cite web|url=http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/wp105.pdf|title=Famine in the Twentieth Century|publisher=IDS|date=16 February 1993|access-date=21 November 2011|archive-date=6 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406112312/http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/wp105.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> up to 10 million in the [[Chinese famine of 1928–1930]], and over two million in the [[Chinese famine of 1942–1943]], and millions more lost in famines in North and East China. The USSR lost 8 million claimed by the [[Soviet famine of 1930–1933]], over a million in both the [[Soviet famine of 1946–1947]] and [[Siege of Leningrad]], the 5 million in the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922]], and others famines. Java suffered 2.5 million deaths under Japanese occupation during World War Two.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huff|first=Gregg|date=2019|title=Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5|journal=The Economic History Review|language=en|volume=72|issue=1|pages=286–316|doi=10.1111/ehr.12741|issn=1468-0289|doi-access=free}}</ref> The other most notable famine of the century was the [[Bengal famine of 1943]], resulting both from the [[Japanese occupation of Burma]], resulting in an influx of refugees, and blocking Burmese grain imports and a failure of the [[Bengal Presidency#Provincial Autonomy|Bengali provincial Government]] to [[Indian Famine Codes|declare a famine]], and fund relief, the imposition of grain and transport embargoes by the neighbouring provincial administrations, to prevent their own stocks being transferred to Bengal, the failure to implement India wide rationing by the central Delhi authority, hoarding and profiteering by [[Merchant|merchants]], medieval land management practices, an Axis powers denial program that confiscated boats once used to transport grain, a Delhi administration that prioritised supplying, and offering medical treatment to the British Indian Army, War workers, and Civil servants, over the populace at large, incompetence and ignorance, and an [[Churchill war ministry|Imperial War Cabinet]] initially leaving the issue to the Colonial administration to resolve, than to the original local crop failures, and blights.<ref name=Sen>{{cite book |last= Sen |first=Amartya |title=Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVC9eqGkMr8C |year=1981a |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-828463-5 |ref=CITEREFA. Sen1981a|at=Chapter 6: [https://books.google.com/books?id=FVC9eqGkMr8C&pg=PA55 "The Great Bengal Famine"]}}</ref>

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[[Bengal famine of 1943|India (1943–44)]], [[Dutch famine of 1944–45|the Netherlands (1944–45)]], [[Nigerian Civil War|Nigeria (1967–70)]], and an engraving of a woman and her children during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine in Ireland (1845–1849)]]
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A few of the great famines of the late 20th century were: the [[Biafra|Biafran famine]] in the 1960s, the [[Khmer Rouge]]-caused famine in Cambodia in the 1970s, the North Korean [[North Korean famine|famine of the 1990s]], and the Ethiopian [[1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia|famine of 1983–1985]]. Approximately 3 million died as a consequence of the [[Second Congo War]].

The Ethiopian famine was reported on television reports around the world, carrying footage of starving Ethiopians whose plight was centered around a feeding station near the town of [[Korem]]. This stimulated the first mass movements to end famine across the world.

[[BBC]] newsreader [[Michael Buerk]] gave moving commentary of the tragedy on 23 October 1984, which he described as a "biblical famine". This prompted the [[Band Aid (band)|Band Aid]] single, which was organized by [[Bob Geldof]] and featured more than 20 pop stars. The [[Live Aid]] concerts in [[London]] and [[Philadelphia]] raised even more funds for the cause. Hundreds of thousands of people died within one year as a result of the famine, but the publicity Live Aid generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa.<ref name="History">{{Cite news|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert|title=Live Aid concert|date=13 July 1985|work=HISTORY.com|access-date=14 September 2018|archive-date=5 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105152731/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some of the famines of the 20th century served the geopolitical purposes of governments, including traumatizing and replacing distrusted ethnic populations in strategically important regions, rendering regions vulnerable to invasion difficult to govern by an enemy power and shifting the burden of food shortage onto regions where the distress of the population posed a lesser risk of catastrophic regime de-legitimation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hickman|first=John|date=4 May 2019|title=Major famines as geopolitical strategies|journal=Comparative Strategy|volume=38|issue=3|pages=224–233|doi=10.1080/01495933.2019.1606663|s2cid=201340371|issn=0149-5933}}</ref>