Has Africa changed?

Recently we came upon an article about the famine in Africa. The article was dated from May 20 1991. Reading through it, it seemed the article could be from a today’s newspaper.


In the old article it was described that there had been no rain. Everywhere people were dying. Already during the last few years and the great famine of 1984 -1985 hundreds of thousands of Sudanese and more than a million Ethiopians have died. The main reasons were drought, civil war and the repressive government. These problems were not unique to Sudan but applied to many other African countries. For the year 1991 it is estimated that it will take an additional one million tons of grain to make up for the shortfall of the harvest in that year. The local government is not willing to admit this and the food that has been pledged by donors so far will make up only 2/3 of the shortfall. In addition corruption and civil war make it very difficult to distribute the food. The future outlook is bleak. There is a high inflation. Since the government refuses to work with Western governments aid is reduced. Environmental problems make things worse. Sudan does not have the money to buy agricultural supplies to improve its harvest.

Today there is still a bloody civil war in Sudan. The Islamic government is very repressive. Hundreds of thousands of people don’t have enough food. About one hundred thousand needy can’t be reached by outside help. Children die every day. Many Sudanese have been driven away from their homeland and they are refugees now. Additional problems are caused by diseases such as HIV and malaria. There is no sign of hope for the future. Sudanese who live in the coastal regions have turned from fishermen to pirates. This is a very disturbing new situation and at present there is no solution in sight.

Hunger and starvation in Africa seem to be never ending. No matter how much food will be spent today, the same people will be hungry tomorrow. This is very frustrating for the people who spend money or the charitable organisations which distribute the goods to the needy. Record donations were made after the tsunami in Asia, but this was a “one time thing” and once the survivors of the tsunami got started again they needed less help.
So after making donation to Africa for more than 50 years nothing has changed. How can we improve the situation in Africa?
Besides food the African people need much more. We should help them to improve the infrastructure of the countries. Roads into remote areas will connect these people to the others and enhance trade. It will be easier to bring a surplus harvest to an area with hunger.
Education is also very important. Just a few simple rules about hygienic standards or some improved farming techniques can make a big difference.