Ethiopian refugees who fled fighting in the Tigray region line up to receive food aid in Sudan.
In the arid Horn of Africa, where political instability can easily bring food insecurity, sometimes the coincidence is deliberate. In Ethiopia, drought led to famine in 1984 but the impact was disproportionate. The government diverted food aid from the areas dominated by its rivals. In Somalia a few years later, warring factions weaponized grain relief in the wake of the government’s collapse.