Forty years to the day since Michael Buerk’s iconic BBC News report brought the horrors of the Ethiopian famine to a stunned world, nurse he interviewed in ‘hell on earth’ reveals how she chose which starving children to try and save

A Red Cross nurse who ‘played God’ during Ethiopia’s devastating famine has today opened its doors to mark the 40th anniversary of the iconic BBC broadcast that stunned the world.

Dame Claire Bertschinger, 71, recalled in a heartbreaking interview how she was forced to choose which malnourished children to feed while fighting on the front line at a remote aid station in Mekele, Tigray province.

She told me Mirror: ‘At first I suggested that the local staff choose them, but they refused and said: ‘They are our brothers, our sisters, our cousins. How can we? You have to do it, Claire. We can’t do that.

‘The pressure was unbearable. They must have thought I was playing God, but I certainly didn’t feel like God.’

The former nurse and lawyer then explained the “guilt” and “shame” she felt knowing she could only save a handful of children while sending the rest to “certain death.”

‘I felt like someone who condemned innocent people to the death camps. I’ve lived with that ever since,” she added.

Bertschinger said she still struggles with the painful memories to this day after the devastating situation.

She remembered some of the children’s names and remembered playing games with one of the young people, but she never forgot the children who died.

As she scrolled through images of her time at the shelter, she talked about how she once had to choose just 60 to 70 children out of 1,000, all of whom were malnourished.

There were so few resources available that she had no choice but to choose who would be fed and saved.

She came to the decision to choose those with ‘a spark of life in their eyes’ as the others were on the brink of death and would die in the coming days.

Claire explained: ‘I would take the ones that had some kind of spark of life in their eyes and just highlight them.

“I marked them with a little coal on their heads, on their arms, and I knew the rest would not survive the next ten days because there was no food.”

Bertschinger recalled feeling like she had changed the lives of the people she saved, but the thought that more children died than survived still lingers in her mind.

Photos of the crisis brought back tragic memories for the aid worker, who told the publication that the mothers at the time left a small tuft of hair on their child’s heads, believing it would be used to pull them to heaven. .

It was Bertschinger’s first time in Africa as she carried out her rescue work in Ethiopia after working at Leeds A&E.

‘I was the only Brit at the time. I had no experience with famine. You didn’t have time to think. I worked seven days a week, from 6am to 6pm. We only had candles for light,” she said.

The damning interview comes 40 years after the BBC broadcast a report by journalist Michael Buerk that drew the world’s attention to the devastating famine.

Ghostly images in Buerk’s 1984 BBC News report – which showed Bertschinger caring for the babies – shocked the world.

The moving film, which aired 40 years ago today, would feature the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? – followed by the Live Aid concert the following year – raising around £120 million for the African country.

Do they know it’s Christmas? went straight to number 1 in December 1984.

And the following year, Live Aid, staged simultaneously at Wembley Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, was broadcast around the world, featuring performances by major acts including Queen and Elton John.

For the 20th anniversary in 2004, Claire returned to Ethiopia with Michael Buerk.

Buerk’s report was broadcast on BBC news, including his interrogation of Claire and his famous description of the nutrition center as ‘the closest thing to hell on earth’.

Bertschinger shared her thoughts on the first report, which she said made a difference after shining a light on the situation and opening the eyes of the outside world to the crisis.

Michael Buerk would later describe Claire as ‘one of the true heroines of our time’.

The practicing Buddhist, who left her role as a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in January, believes there needs to be more understanding in the world.

After leaving Ethiopia, she went on to work in more than a dozen war-torn areas around the world, from Afghanistan to Ivory Coast and Lebanon.

She continues her work today as a trustee and ambassador for The African Children’s Educational Trust and Patron for Promise Nepal – an organization that helps lepers and their families.

Bertschinger also continues to work very hard to train nurses from all over the world.

On Friday, she and Michael Buerk, along with others, will give a lecture at the London School of Economics about the Ethiopian famine and fundraising efforts.

The Ethiopian famine of the 1980s was one of the worst humanitarian events of the 20th century, with the food shortages and hunger crisis from 1983 to 1985 leading to an estimated one million famine deaths, according to the United Nations.

Millions of people were displaced and left destitute, without the means to rebuild their lives.

The famine occurred as a result of recurring droughts, crop failures, food shortages, conflicts that prevented aid from reaching people in occupied territory, and government policies that displaced families and shifted aid to certain areas.

Aid agencies, including World Vision, came together to provide relief to starving children and families during the crisis, but that would not be enough.

It was not until Buerk’s BBC report was broadcast in October 1984 that the masses were galvanized to donate to the relief effort.