There is no other tragedy more cruel than somebody dying of hunger. As the civilised world, with all its efforts, is helplessly watching tens of thousands of people in Africa die of famine and food crisis year after year,this year the ghost of 1994 Somalia and Ethiopian famine has come to haunt Niger and Mali and few other african countries. The international aid agencies are trying hard to help as they could, even though the famine has already taken its toll on children and the elderly and animals as well.
The problem of African poverty is a complex issue of nature's fury, internal conflicts,corruption and to some extent global negligence. Droughts and crop failures create food crisis. But that is not the only problem. there are instances of overflowing warehouses and empty stomachs. Even the food distributed by the international aid agencies could not be properly distributed in the presence of rebel groups and high corruption among the local authoriites.
The 'Make poverty history' campaign and the G8 summit have promised and done enough to adddress this problem. But no amount of external aid and support will work, until the african countries try to solve thier political disputes and corruption to save their people. On thier part, the global community, apart from the food aids, should come out with a long-term strategy providing alternate agricultural technologies, trade favours, political mediation and capacity building.