Nomads blame Ethiopian military for starvation
Updated on 18 September 2008
Trapped in the middle of a war, Muslim ethnic Somalis face starvation. Jonathan Rugman reports from Ethiopia.
Deliberately starving people to death: that's the accusation being levelled at the Ethiopian government by the poor nomadic people of the country's eastern deserts.
Here, starvation threatens as people go days without food. Channel 4 News has learned it's not just the failure of crops that's to blame - it's also the Ethiopian army.
Channel 4 News travelled into the Ogaden desert, where most of the inhabitants are Muslim ethnic Somalis, trapped in the middle of a war between rebels fighting for independence and the Ethiopian army.
Read Jonathan Rugman's report in the Times
In the vast deserts of the Ogaden the rains have failed for three years and the animals are dying in their thousands.
The UN and the Ethiopian government say they are trying to avert starvation, but deep in the bush the people say they have seen no food - and that the Ethiopian army are deliberately starving people to death.
According to the nomads, who are so hungry they are harvesting dead leaves and buds, the military are the only people who receive food.
Gallery
Click on the image below to view a gallery of stills from Jonathan Rugman's report.
