The Current Problem of Famine in Africa
The Current Problem of Famine in Africa
This paper is about two African third world countries that have serious problems with hunger, Ethiopia and Sudan. Looking at the people, the land, and the history in each country, a comparison will be made about the causes and effects of famine. Famine in Ethiopia and Sudan is apparently due to ethics, politics, and global weather patterns, but the specific causes of famine in these two countries differ greatly.
Famine has stricken both Ethiopia and Sudan very harshly, with many people dying of starvation and others just waiting to die from the horrible hunger. Starvation threatens 365,000 people in Sudan, with the numbers just increasing, with no sign that they will stop increasing either (Nelan, 20). The whole country of Sudan is going through these troubles, but the famine is having its biggest impact in the Southwest and the Northern areas of Sudan (Nelan, 22). Throughout the whole country, 2.5 million square miles of land are empty, without crops that could hold valuable food for the starving people in Sudan. Those numbers are almost nothing compared to the country of Ethiopia though. It is estimated that in Ethiopia there are 4.6 million people starving or currently dead (www.news). Part of this is due to the fact that their crops became stunted drastically with the elongated dry season and an exceptionally short rainy season (www.news). All of these things make people miserable so they are forced to focus on other things to try and block out the famine troubles in both countries.
Wars and other hardships have, and still are dominating the attention of the government to try to focus on something besides their own famine troubles. Ethiopia is constantly fighting “border wars” with their neighboring country Eritrea (Keller, 46). Some people in Ethiopia go as far as to fast to protest the fighting that is going on (Keller, 47). Even with the little food they have to begin with, they choose to fast to get the Government’s attention. In Sudan though, the famine does not escape the people’s attention, with their constant riots in order to try and stop the horrendous famine (Prusher, 7). But the government has done nothing, in fact they have caused more trouble by causing civil wars between Islamic Fundamentalists, and Christians (Prusher, 7). In both countries, the main focus is always is on the...