World Notes ETHIOPIA

Already the world's poorest country, Ethiopia faces famine again. In the northern provinces of Tigre and Eritrea, drought has cut crop yields 85%. The U.N. estimates that 4 million people are in danger of starving and will need emergency food aid. An international relief effort is at work, but in the civil war between the rigidly Marxist government of President Mengistu Haile Mariam and rebels from Tigre and Eritrea, denial of food is a key weapon for both sides. The main relief agencies would like to bring supplies to the insurgents across the Sudanese border instead of via government-controlled ports. But that could get the agencies banned from vital operations in government areas.

The rebels recently dealt some major blows to Mengistu's troops, which are among the best-equipped in Africa, courtesy of $500 million yearly in Soviet aid. Tigre-led forces are 80 miles from the capital and may sever its links with the country's major port. The government is conscripting women and children and threatening to divert all development aid to mobilization. At gunpoint or with threats of confiscating ration cards, soldiers dragoon crowds for "patriotic" rallies. Mengistu narrowly missed assassination two months ago.

Representatives of the government and Eritrean rebels, mediated by Jimmy Carter, agreed last week to hold formal peace talks, but any settlement will come too late to put food in bloated stomachs.