War and Food Security in Eritrea and Ethiopia, 1998–2000

Author: White, Philip

Source: Disasters, Volume 29, Supplement 1, June 2005 , pp. S92-S113(22)

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Abstract:

This paper examines the 1998–2000 ‘border’ war between Eritrea and Ethiopia and its continuing legacies from the perspective of food security.¹ Focusing on the food crisis that hit both countries during the same period and was allowed to develop into a famine in southeast Ethiopia, it argues that this was linked with the war in more ways than hitherto recognised. Such connections can be appreciated only by taking a longer-term view of the decline of the rural economy of which this food crisis was part, factoring in the role played by this and other conflicts that have flared up in the region. An analysis of this kind might have helped donors and aid agencies to respond more effectively both to short-term humanitarian needs in the midst of an inter-state war and to the need for longer-term support for food security in a region beset by endemic conflict.

Keywords: aid policy; conflict; Eritrea; Ethiopia; food security; Horn of Africa; international aid system

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0361-3666.2005.00286.x

Affiliations: 1: 1Independent Consultant

Publication date: 2005-06-01