Thread by @Amhara_Fascism

#Ethiopia — As early as 1964 there were reports of extensive hunger in #Wollo province; chronic food deficits continued throughout the decade. Warnings and urgent requests for food brought very little response.

It would not be until a television documentary, "The Unknown Famine," assembled by journalist Jonathan Dimbleby, was broadcast on the British television network @ITV in October 1973 that the silence surrounding the #Wollofamine was broken.

Consequently, when after years of poor rainfall in #Wollo the 1971 rains did not come at all, despite sharp warnings from local administrators, there was no sense of urgency in the central government. A year and two months after aid requests, thousands began dying of starvation

In 1972, the rains failed again in #Wollo and #Tigray; again there would be no harvest for this region. Now 2 million people were affected. All the horrors of widespread famine were set in motion, as some victims were driven to stealing, and disease spread through the shelters.

By the beginning of 1973 the capital was full of whispers of famine in Wollo. Up to this point, the ministries had been indifferent to the problem. Now, with rumors sweeping through the streets and people demanding answers, they resorted to the cover-up: they denied the famine

Through the media they gave assurances that the situation was normal, that there were in fact surpluses. Their lies were exposed and the rumors were confirmed when bands of ragged, starving peasants arrived at the outskirts of Addis Ababa in February 1973.

Police were ordered to prevent them from entering the city, but it was too late. Small groups from the city were able to talk with the peasants and obtain the first definite confirmation that famine existed. The government then grew indignant.

A high government official appeared on television in February saying that there was no famine, and if there was it was the people's fault. He reasoned that it was "the obligation of the people to inform higher authorities whenever there is drought."

Additionally, Emperor Haile Selassie considered that the peasants and nomads of Wollo were shaming his reputation by starving, and resolved to ignore them. Reports of famine were consistently ignored or denied.

In response to a report by @UNICEF documenting famine conditions in July 1973, the Vice-Minister of Planning reported: "If we have to describe the situation in the way you have in order to generation intl assistance, then we don't want that assistance...

The embarrassment to the government isn't worth it. Is that perfectly clear?"

[source: Paul H. Brietzke, Law, Development and the Ethiopian Revolution, Lewisburg, 1982 p. 127]