Editing Humanitarian aid (section)

=== 1980s ===

[[File:Opbushel.jpg|thumb|[[RAF]] [[C-130]] airdropping food during 1985 famine]]

Early attempts were in private hands and were limited in their financial and organizational capabilities. It was only in the 1980s, that global news coverage and celebrity endorsement were mobilized to galvanize large-scale government-led famine (and other forms of) relief in response to disasters around the world. The [[1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia|1983–85 famine in Ethiopia]] caused upwards of 1 million deaths and was documented by a [[BBC]] news crew, with [[Michael Buerk]] describing "a biblical famine in the 20th Century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth".<ref>{{cite news |date=23 October 2014 |title=How a Report on Ethiopia's 'Biblical Famine' Changed the World |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-report-ethiopias-biblical-famine-changed-world-n232126 |work=NBC News |language=en}}</ref>

[[Live Aid]], a 1985 fund-raising effort headed by [[Bob Geldof]] induced millions of people in the West to donate money and to urge their governments to participate in the relief effort in Ethiopia. Some of the proceeds also went to the famine hit areas of Eritrea.<ref>{{cite web |title=In 1984 Eritrea was part of Ethiopia, where some of the song's proceeds were spent |url=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d6750ff7c1236f1e21669b2af53797c3.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622020815/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d6750ff7c1236f1e21669b2af53797c3.htm |archive-date=22 June 2011 |access-date=2009-05-08}}</ref>