Leaders in the international aid community said famine existed during the war in northern Ethiopia without the necessary food insecurity data to underpin it, according to former World Food Programme country director for Ethiopia Steven Were Omamo.
“Without doubt, there was deep food insecurity in Tigray. But there was no evidence of famine,” he wrote in a recently published book, speculating that famine was used to tap into the “multi-billion-dollar hunger industry” or as a “colonial paternalistic” urge for the global community to “feel good” about itself for averting it.
The polarized conflict in Ethiopia has been marred by scarce information, misinformation, and self-censoring as humanitarian workers faced government backlash, which included organization suspensions and expulsion of senior United Nations officials.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
