Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

Not all of you will remember 1984, and the horrendous famine that killed a million Ethiopians. Those who do would prefer to forget it. But it's happening again, for the same criminal reasons, and once more the world is turning a blind eye.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

This famine has nothing to do with natural causes. It's striking Tigray, that was a world-renowned success story. Prosperity had been rebuilt through massive works to restore the land, protect ecosystems and raise crop production. The famine is gigantic and deliberate war crime.

The crime is being perpetrated by the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, who are using hunger as a weapon of war. They were sent into Tigray by the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed.
Guess what? He has a Nobel Peace Prize.
If there's any justice, he should end up in the Hague.

The Nobel committee says the rules forbid it to rescind its prizes. But rules are made by humans and can be changed by humans. Yet again, it finds itself complicit in great crimes, by lending credibility to those who oversee them.

Let's not hear a word from the Malthusians who might be tempted to blame this manufactured famine on "population". The rise in crop production in Tigray has easily outstripped the rise in human numbers. Fascinatingly, land degradation has fallen as the population has risen.

Tigray is greener now than at any time since 1868 (when records began). It has more wildlife, more trees, more vegetation, less erosion, better crop yields. And the indicators are best where the rural population is greatest. Why?

Because this restoration required a vast amount of human labour. It simply couldn't have happened with a small population. People have shifted, by hand, on steep slopes, millions of tonnes of rock and soil, making terraces, bunds and ponds, stopping gulley and sheet erosion.

These are not great photos, but they show the same gulley before, during and after restoration. All done by hand.

The same thing has happened across the region. Every fit person provides 20 days of community labour per year to restore the land. The programme has a strong sense of local ownership and enthusiasm. It's used around the world as an example of best practice.

And this beautifully restored, revegetated land is now being attacked from all sides. The Ethiopian and Eritrean armies have destroyed grain stores, turned back food convoys, killed oxen, stolen farm implements and ordered farmers on pain of death not to till their fields.

Every death from hunger is on them. A great crime - perhaps the greatest anywhere so far this century - is being perpetrated. And, just as in the approach to the 1984 famine, we look the other way. Why isn't this in the headlines, everywhere?