John Vidal in the Guardian argues that ‘to pin this crisis on drought or climate change is wrong. This is an entirely predictable, traditional, man-made disaster, with little new about it except the numbers of people on the move and perhaps the numbers of children dying near the cameras. . . .

‘Aid agencies and governments have known for almost a year that food would run out by now. But it is only now . . . that the global humanitarian machine has moved in . . . . [I]t takes months to prepare properly for a disaster.

‘Just as in 2008, the war in Somalia is primarily responsible for the worst that is happening. . . .

‘But another, more insidious war has also been taking place across the region. This one is being waged by governments and businesses against the pastoralists. Over the years, they have been steadily marginalised and discriminated against by Ugandan, Kenyan and Ethiopian governments, and now they are further jeopardised by large-scale farming, the expansion of national parks, and game reserves and conservation.

The politicians think little of taking away their dry season grazing grounds or blocking their traditional routes to pasture land. However, as seen in major international studies, the pastoralists produce more and better quality meat and generate more cash per hectare than “modern” Australian and US ranches.

‘Instead of starving the region’s people of funds and then picking up the pieces in the bad years—as governments must do now—Britain, the EU, the US and Japan must help people adapt to the hotter, drier conditions they face. With better pumps and boreholes, better vaccination of cattle, help with education, food storage and transport, people can live well again.

‘This emergency will cost the west around $400m. If this money was put into long-term development instead of emergency aid and feeding programmes that keep people just above starvation, this tragedy could have been avoided. Instead, the world is almost certain to be here again in one or two years’ time.’

Read the whole article at the Guardian‘s Comment Is Free Blog: Famine we could avoid, 21 Jul 2011.