Tigray is in crisis. The people of this region in northern EthiopiaA landlocked country in Africa. With a population of about 120 million, Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures. are on the verge of starvation. 

Reporters saw families forced to eat tiny berries to survive and a 50-year-old woman so weak she was unable to move from a bench.

This famineA widespread scarcity of food.  is one of the biggest crises facing the world today. It follows a civil war in which thousands died through starvation, disease and massacresDeliberate and brutal killings of people..¹

After the war, the United NationsAn international organisation focused on keeping peace. Its refugee agency, the UNHCR, aims to assist refugees around the world. halted food aid packages after many were stolen.² A droughtA time when there is not enough water and the ground is very dry. began. The harvest was ruined.

Tigray now faces appalling horrors. Almost 400 deaths were recorded by February. Things are set to get worse. Regional president Getachew Reda declared that over 90% of people are at risk of starvation and death.

Yet this has attracted barely any coverage in the Western news. American government newspaper The Hill called it "the famine the world is ignoring".

It was not always this way: the 1980s Ethiopian famine garnered enormous public attention. Pop star Bob Geldof staged Live Aid, a pair of concerts featuring many of the biggest artists of the day.³

Today's famine has received no such attention. There are several possible reasons.

One is about safety. Under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian government has begun cracking down on press freedom.⁴  Perhaps journalists do not want to risk their own lives?

Readers might be more worried about crises that seem closer to home: the invasion of UkraineA country in Eastern Europe. It was invaded by Russia in February 2022. could spill over into a global war, and the GazaThe smaller of two Palestinian territories, home to two million people. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, bordered by Israel and Egypt. conflict has filled European cities with PalestinianPalestine is an area of the eastern Mediterranean region, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and parts of modern Israel. It has been fought over by Arab and Jewish national movements for many years. flags. By contrast, to an outsider, Ethiopia's famine seems confined and distant.

We might be suffering from crisis fatigue. The news delivers disaster after disaster. Perhaps we have no mental bandwidth for more? Even the biggest issues gradually fade. Ukraine now features in far fewer headlines than it did in 2022.

Some say that this is no excuse. Newspapers have the power to provoke change, and they should use it while they can. Journalists should always, as the Bible says, "uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed".

Not acting can cause things to get worse. In the 1990s, the press under-reported the Rwandan GenocideDuring a period of 100 days in 1994, more than 500,000 people were killed during a campaign of mass murder during the Rwandan Civil War. Most of the victims were members of the minority Tutsi group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa. . HumanitarianPeople or views that advocate for human welfare organisations did not grasp its scale until it was too late. Hideous violence followed.⁵

Should this be on every front page?

Yes: The Tigray famine threatens to become one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in decades. Press attention could force politicians and organisations to act before it gets even worse.

No: The famine is awful, but given how many big crises we face - wars, climate change, extremism, economic uncertainty - it is understandable why news sources focus on matters closer to home.

Or... It should. But newspapers are businesses that rely on audiences to survive. If readers find celebrity gossip more important than the famine, then it makes sense to put the former on the cover.