Who is to blame for famines?: More than a century of man-made hunger
Famines are often described as inevitable acts of nature. But history reveals them as the man-made product of failed leadership, corruption and deliberate choices
From the devastated streets of Gaza to the fields of Bengal, history shows us that famines are not the work of nature alone. More often than not, they are the outcome of political decisions, corruption, and leadership failures.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres aptly put it in August this year, "Famine is not about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival."
Nowhere is this more visible than in Gaza today. The UN reports that more than half a million Gazans are on the brink of starvation, with widespread destitution already underway. While Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the "complete siege", human rights groups have accused his government of weaponising starvation.
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Aid convoys face deliberate obstruction, food infrastructure has been destroyed, and access to supplies is consistently disrupted. The International Criminal Court has even issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders on charges of using starvation as a method of warfare. What is unfolding in Gaza is, as Guterres called it, "a man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself".
But none of this is new. The idea of famine as an unavoidable act of nature masks the truth that most famines have been engineered, at the very least worsened by human hands. Looking back, we see a pattern: destructive leadership, misguided policies and deliberate neglect.
Joseph Stalin
One of the most devastating examples of a man-made famine is the Holodomor in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, caused by Joseph Stalin's soviet government.
The forced collectivisation of agriculture, impossibly high grain quotas, mass confiscation of food, blacklisting of villages, and restrictions on movement left millions to starve.
Beyond economic policy, the famine was also used to suppress Ukrainian nationalism and resistance to Soviet control. Today, many countries and institutions recognise the Holodomor as a deliberate act of genocide.
The 1974 famine in Bangladesh revealed how corruption and political mismanagement can turn natural shocks into national tragedies. Floods in the north destroyed crops, but it was government failure under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that ensured widespread starvation.
Winston Churchill
Around three million people died during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, a toll driven not only by a cyclone and crop disease but primarily by British colonial policy under Winston Churchill. Wartime needs were prioritised over Indian lives, with rice diverted to British troops and stockpiles in Europe.
Churchill himself blocked relief shipments from Australia and Canada and infamously dismissed Indian suffering, blaming the famine on people "breeding like rabbits".
His government's "denial policy", which destroyed boats and rice stocks to deter Japanese invasion, crippled Bengal's economy and transport. Meanwhile, rampant speculation and hoarding sent rice prices soaring.
The famine was worsened by an indifferent and ineffective colonial administration, which delayed declaring a state of famine and prioritised urban elites over rural poor. As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and others have argued, Bengal's famine was no accident but the result of deliberate policies from London.
Mao Zedong
China's Great Famine of 1959–61 remains perhaps the starkest case of a famine manufactured by political ideology. Tens of millions died during Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward," which sought to transform China overnight into an industrial power.
Farmers were forced into collective farms, traditional agriculture was abandoned in favour of pseudoscientific methods, and labour was diverted into the farcical "backyard steel" campaign. Officials, fearful of punishment, exaggerated harvests, leaving peasants with nothing as grain was exported abroad.
Those who spoke out were silenced, imprisoned, or killed. What emerged was not a natural disaster but the direct consequence of Mao's policies, policies that elevated ideology above human life.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
The famine in Bangladesh in 1974 revealed how corruption and political mismanagement can turn natural shocks into national tragedies. Floods in the north destroyed crops, but it was government failure under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that ensured widespread starvation.
Amartya Sen described this as a "famine of entitlements", where food existed but people lost the means to access it. Mismanagement and corruption diverted food supplies into private hands, while hoarding and speculation sent rice prices soaring. Imports fell dramatically in crucial months, and even the US withheld aid in response to Bangladesh's trade with Cuba.
Landless labourers and the poor were left unable to buy food, even as grain was available in parts of the country. Hundreds of thousands perished, not because there was no food, but because government action failed to protect the vulnerable.
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Leadership failure was at the core of Ethiopia's famine between 1983 and 1985. While drought was a factor, Mengistu Haile Mariam's government turned hunger into a weapon. His forces restricted food in rebel-held areas, destroying supplies in a scorched-earth policy that starved civilians along with fighters.
Collectivisation and villagisation schemes disrupted farming, while forced resettlement killed thousands. At the same time, the government poured resources into a civil war, leaving famine relief underfunded.
International aid was diverted and manipulated for political ends. Hundreds of thousands died, not simply from lack of rain but because the government chose war over food security.
Sudan's governments and militias
Sudan offers one more tragic example. From the 1998 famine that killed over 70,000 in Bahr el Ghazal to the current crisis in Darfur, hunger has been wielded as a weapon. Governments and militias obstructed aid flights, looted food supplies, and besieged communities.
Both the Sudanese government and rebel groups like the SPLA used starvation in their battles, while displacement and scorched earth tactics destroyed agriculture. Even in recent years, Sudan's armed factions, the SAF and RSF, have blocked humanitarian deliveries, leaving millions displaced and at risk. As the UN notes, this is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, driven not by climate alone but by deliberate human actions.
What unites these famines, Ukraine, Bengal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, Sudan, and now Gaza, is a sobering truth: hunger is rarely inevitable. Natural events like floods, blights, and droughts may spark food shortages, but it is political decisions, corruption, and disregard for human life that turn shortages into famine. Famines are not just about empty fields or failed harvests; they are about failed leadership.
Today, as Gaza starves under siege, the lesson from history is painfully clear. Famine is not fate. It is a choice, and it is leaders who must be held to account.
