Famine and politics in the Horn of Africa

Abstract

The attention of the media has in recent years focused on the Horn of Africa as an area blighted by famine. John Markakis attempts to analyse the political responses of the Sudanese and Ethiopian regimes to the famine, the contradictions in their policies and their lack of impact on the underlying problems. He looks particularly at the dilemmas faced by subsistence farmers in the area, as opposed to the urban dwellers who control political power.