After a slew of likely contenders such as heart disease, anemia, thyroid disease, depression or a sleep disorder are ruled out, getting to the source of fatigue gets murky. Among the many next-tier suspects is the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
Indeed, 2.4 million of those at risk of famine were in southern Sudan, the main arena of the war. Southern Sudan occupies almost one third of the territory of Sudan, which at 2.5 million square kilometers is the largest country in Africa.
Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest and most indebted countries, which makes it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as drought. This raises the question of how far Ethiopia's debt burden has contributed to the current famine. In a report released on Friday, Oxfam said that poverty was the underlying cause of Ethiopia's famine, and that famines would continue to recur there until the country's poverty was addressed.