The dark side of Live Aid

The BBC recently reported that some money from the 1980s charity Live Aid was used by one of the rebel groups, the Marxist Leninist League of Tigray, to buy guns. Live Aid founder Bob Geldof has angrily denied the allegations and is complaining to broadcasting regulator Ofcom, but the claims appear well-researched and the BBC is standing by its report.

In 2005, Prospect Magazine (subscription required) reported that

The millions donated to Ethiopia in 1985 thanks to Live Aid were supposed to go towards relieving a natural disaster. In reality, donors became participants in a civil war. Many lives were saved, but even more may have been lost in Live Aid's unwitting support of a Stalinist-style resettlement project

Aid resources were used to sustain forced population transfers on a large scale, as President Mengistu moved his enemies around Ethiopia; the article did not use the phrase "ethnic cleansing", but it might easily be applied.