[9] According to the United States Agency for International Development, "in the fall of 1984, the hardest hit regions were Tigray, Wollo, and Eritrea – areas with extremely limited road and transportation networks.

[11] According to the organizations Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, the famines that struck Ethiopia between 1961 and 1985, and in particular the one of 1983–1985, were in part created by the government's military policies, specifically a set of so-called counter-insurgency strategies (against Tigray People's Liberation Front guerrilla-soldiers), and for "social transformation" in non-insurgent areas (against people of Tigray Province, Wollo Province and such).

[17] In 1973, drought and feudal extractions caused a famine that killed 40,000 to 200,000 people in Wollo, mostly of the marginalized Afar herders and Oromo tenant farmers, who suffered from the widespread confiscation of land by the wealthy classes and government of Emperor Haile Selassie.

The RRC initially enjoyed more independence from the Derg than any other ministry, largely due to its close ties to foreign donors and the quality of some of its senior staff.

[21] The Red Terror (1976–1978) marked the beginning of a steady deterioration in the economic state of the nation, coupled with extractive policies targeting rural areas.

[citation needed] The reforms of 1975 were revoked and the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) was tasked with extracting food from rural peasantry at low rates to placate the urban populations.

The Derg also imposed a system of travel permits to restrict peasants from engaging in non-agricultural activities, such as petty trading and migrant labor, a major form of income supplementation.

[citation needed] However, the collapse of the system of State Farms, a large employer of seasonal laborers, resulted in an estimated 500,000 farmers in northern Ethiopia losing a component of their income.

It also encouraged international agencies to set up relief programs in regions with surplus grain production, which allowed the AMC to collect the excess food.

[23] The Mengistu Haile Mariam-led military dictatorship (Derg) used this 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia as government military policy by restricting food supplies for strategy against the counter-insurgency of the Tigray People's Liberation Front's guerrilla-soldiers, and for "social transformation" in non-insurgent areas (against people of Tigray province, Welo province and such).

[7][8][9] Before the 1983–1985 famine, two decades of wars of national liberation and other anti-government conflict had raged throughout northern Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea.

In a major study, de Waal criticized the United Nations for being "remarkably cavalier" about the numbers of people who died, with the UN's one-million figure having "absolutely no scientific basis whatsoever," a fact which represents "a trivialization and dehumanization of human misery".

[33] A further major contributing factor to the famine were the Ethiopian government's enforced resettlement programs, utilized as part of its counter-insurgency campaign.

[citation needed] Despite RRC claims to have predicted the famine, there was little data as late as early 1984 indicating an unusually severe food shortage.

[1] A major drain on Ethiopia's economy was the ongoing civil war, which pitched rebel movements against the Soviet and Cuban-backed Derg government.

[citation needed] By mid-1984, it was evident that another drought and resulting famine of major proportions had begun to affect large parts of northern Ethiopia.

In late 1985, another year of drought was forecast, and by early 1986 the famine had spread to parts of the southern highlands, with an estimated 5.8 million people dependent on relief food.

[citation needed] The primary government response to the drought and famine was the decision to uproot large numbers of peasants who lived in the affected areas in the north and to resettle them in the west and southern part of the country.

Several human rights organizations claimed that tens of thousands of peasants died as a result of forced resettlement.

[37] The report shocked Britain, motivating its citizens to inundate relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations, and also to bring the world's attention to the crisis in Ethiopia.

[38][39] In November 1984, the British Royal Air Force carried out the first airdrops from Hercules C-130s delivering food to the starving people.

[40] Other countries including Sweden,[41] East and West Germany, Poland, Canada, United States, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were also involved in the international response.

In Canada, supergroup Northern Lights, consisting of Bryan Adams, The Guess Who, Rush, Anne Murray, John Candy, Neil Young, and among others sang "Tears Are Not Enough", which was produced by David Foster.

Some journalists suggested that the Derg was able to use Live Aid and Oxfam money to fund its enforced resettlement and "villagization" programs, under which at least 3 million people are said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.

It also added that "The BBC wishes to apologise unreservedly to the Band Aid Trust for the misleading and unfair impression which was created".