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. have been brought to the brink of starvation. 

One reporter saw two boys throw stones to knock tiny berries off thorny branches. Their father Abadi Adane said: "After they are finished, I don't know what we will eat." Elsewhere, reporters saw a 50-year-old woman so weak she was unable to move from her bench.

This famineA widespread scarcity of food.  is one of the biggest crises facing the world today. It follows a devastating civil war between Tigray separatistsPeople who favour separation from a group or religion to form their own. and the Ethiopian government, during which thousands died through starvation, disease and massacresDeliberate and brutal killings of people..¹

The war ended in 2022. In 2023, 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 unimaginable 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 it 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. This raised £114m for famine relief and brought Ethiopia's plight to the headlines.³

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

One is 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 Ukraine could spill over into a global war, and the Gaza conflict has filled European cities with Palestinian flags. By contrast, to an outsider, Ethiopia's famine seems confined and distant.

We might be suffering from crisis fatigueA burnout response to prolonged exposure to a crisis.. The news delivers disaster after disaster. Perhaps we have no mental bandwidth for more. Even the biggest issues gradually fade. As philosopherA thinker who comes up with ideas about big questions in life. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone writes: "people are not well-equipped to keep a sustained focus on ongoing or traumatic occurrences".

Maybe we do not really care? People care little about crises until they affect their lives. Take climate change: many think radical action is needed, but those with power are unwilling to take it. And they will continue to ignore it until their lives are directly impacted.

Some argue that this is no excuse. Newspapers have power to stimulate change. Just by printing something, they bring it to wider attention. Journalists should, as the Bible says, "uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed".

Not acting can make things 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. Unspeakable 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 far, far 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.