Band Aid Relief Fueled Corruption

In 1984, Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof helped organize Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" after BBC reporter Michael Buerk's coverage pushed Ethiopia's famine into global attention. The song and other awareness projects sent millions of dollars' worth of aid and supplies into Ethiopia, but corruption within the system meant international organizations routed much of the food aid through the Derg government in the south. The Derg used food supplies as a military tool in the north, where civil war and separatist conflict had worsened the famine. The aid saved some people from starvation, but corruption and the way officials handled it also prolonged the Ethiopian Civil War and cost many other Ethiopians their lives.

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