Ethiopia, 30 years on from famine and Live Aid

Mekelle (Ethiopia)

Three decades ago, the world looked on in horror at images of dying famine victims in Ethiopia, as musicians led the giant global fundraising concert, Live Aid.

Today, Ethiopia's northeastern Tigray region has changed, with ambitious irrigation projects turning arid land where as many as 400,000 people died of famine  some say as many as a million into valuable farmland. Tekie Hagos, 73, recalls the grim days of the 1984-85 famine.

"The government would come and pick up the bodies, piling them in cars to bury them," he said, adding that hyenas would scavenge for forgotten human remains. Today, the city market is full of goods, fruits, vegetables and livestock.

The clean and orderly regional capital of Mekelle reflects the progress made by the country, Africa's second most-populous, which has experienced recent near-double-digit economic growth and huge infrastructure investment. Malnutrition and children in ragged clothes have not disappeared, but "things have changed," said Tekie.

"We have enough," he said. "You don't see people dying of hunger anymore." 

Live Aid, held in simultaneous concerts in Britain and the United States on July 13, 1985, as well as other concerts worldwide, was watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people across 150 countries, according to its organisers. Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof and Scottish musician Midge Ure led the efforts to raise millions of dollars in aid.