Television pictures of starving Ethiopian children are once again on Western television screens, 15 years after famine claimed the lives of nearly one million people.

Ethiopean child, Korem, Ethiopia, 0ctober 1984
The Ethiopian Government was accused of neglecting its people
As aid workers estimate eight million people are at risk from starvation, there are inevitable parallels with the crisis of 1984-85. Aid workers have called on the West to react immediately with food and aid, to avoid the same massive death toll.

Many mistakes were made in the 1980s, both by the West and by the Ethiopian Government. The West was criticised for not reacting to the crisis in time; the Ethiopian Government for its spending on civil war.

In October 1984 the death toll in Ethiopia was estimated at 200,000. Western diplomats said 900,000 people would die by the end of the year whatever the level of aid.

2008 drought has once again hit Ethiopia, international community says an estimated 126,000 Ethiopian children urgently need food and medical care according to the U.N. children’s agency. Chronic malnutrition is adversely affecting the physical and mental development of these children .
 Last year, the rains were good. Teagistu Gansamo filled the fertile earth of her half-acre plot with maize and bean seeds and, for months afterwards, she and her five children ate well but this year at least £115 million in aid is needed to fight starvation in Ethiopia as the situation in the drought-stricken country worsens.
 Two-year-old Halima Gaz has been severely brain-damaged following a fever when she was 15 months old, as her family was unable to get her to a doctor.