Ethiopia: UN warns 90% of people in Tigray need food aid
June 1, 2021
The UN's World Food Program has sounded the alarm over the high number of people it says require emergency food assistance in the conflict-hit region of northern Ethiopia after seven months of fighting.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) sounded the alarm as officials appealed for $203 million (€166 million) to tackle the problem of hunger there.
"A total of 5.2 million people, equivalent to 91% of Tigray's population, need emergency food assistance due to the conflict," WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri told reporters in Geneva.
"We are deeply concerned at the number of people we see in need of nutrition support and emergency food assistance," he added.
What could happen without urgent aid?
Last week, a senior UN official warned the UN Security Council that urgent measures were needed to avoid famine in Tigray.
Advertisement
"There is a serious risk of famine if assistance is not scaled up in the next two months," wrote Mark Lowcock, the UN's top emergency relief coordinator, in a briefing note seen by news agency AFP.
He said "over 90% of the harvest was lost due to looting, burning, or other destruction, and that 80% of the livestock in the region were looted or slaughtered."
Ethiopia: Tigrayans flee as fresh conflict erupts
Tens of thousands of Tigrayans are being driven from their homes by the Amhara militia. The latest conflict was sparked by a historic land dispute. Local towns are struggling to cope with the exodus.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
A temporary home
11-year-old Asmara holds her 1-year-old brother Barakat at the doorway to their living space at Tsehaye primary school in the town of Shire, which has been turned into a temporary shelter. Four months after the Ethiopian government declared victory over the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), tens of thousands of Tigrayans are again being forced to flee their homes.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
Waiting for food
Displaced Tigrayans queue for food at the temporary shelter. These people weren't driven from their homes by fighting between the Ethiopian government and the rebels. According to witnesses and members of Tigray's new administration, regional forces and militiamen from neighboring Amhara are now violently trying to settle a decades-old land dispute in the Tigray region.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
Disputed territory
The town of Adigrat in Tigray, which is also considered a strategically important gateway to Eritrea. Amhara officials say about a quarter of Tigrayan land was taken from them during the almost 30 years that the TPLF dominated power in the region. However, Tigrayan officials say the area is home to both ethnic groups and the borders are set by the constitution.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
On patrol
Ethiopian soldiers on the back of a truck near Adigrat. Fighters from Amhara first entered Tigray in support of federal Ethiopian forces during the TPLF conflict. They have remained in the region since the fighting subsided, with local officials accusing them of driving out Tigrayans.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
Basic comforts
A man carries mattresses into the Tsehaye primary school in Shire. The latest territorial dispute threatens to worsen an already precarious humanitarian situation. According to Tewodros Aregai, the interim head of Shire’s northwestern zone, the town was already hosting 270,000 people before the latest influx of refugees and is running out of food and shelter.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
New arrivals
A bus carrying displaced Tigrayans arrives in Shire. It is difficult to verify the exact number of people who have fled in recent weeks, as some have been displaced several times. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says some 1,000 arrive in Shire every day, while the Norwegian Refugee Council says between 140,000-185,000 arrived over a two-week period in March.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
From campus to shelter
Displaced Tigrayans try to make themselves at home at the Shire campus of Aksum University, which has also been turned into a temporary shelter. The four centers set up in the town to house new refugees are almost full. Some families squeeze into classrooms, halls and half-finished buildings, while others make do camping under tarpaulins or on open ground.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
Holding loved ones close
A woman holds an infant inside a temporary refugee shelter at the Adiha secondary school in Tigray's capital, Mekelle. Many of the Tigrayans who have fled their homes have described attacks, looting and threats by Amhara gunmen, with some bearing scars from their ordeal.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
An echo of conflict
A burned-out tank near the town of Adwa stands as a stark reminder of the simmering conflict in the Tigray region. The United Nations has already warned of possible war crimes taking place in Tigray, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said ethnic cleansing is taking place and called on Amhara forces to withdraw from Tigray.
Image: Baz Ratner/REUTERS
9 images1 | 9
The WFP said the instability was undermining the efforts of humanitarian workers to reach vulnerable communities in Tigray, especially in rural areas.
The agency said it has provided emergency aid to more than a million people since it started distributions in northwestern and southern areas of Tigray in March.
But Phiri said the UN body was "alarmed at the impact of conflict on already high levels of hunger" after seven months of fighting.
What is the background to the conflict?
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into the northern region in November.
The army moved to detain and disarm leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's former ruling party, which the government accused of attacking military bases.
The TPLF dominated national politics for decades until Abiy came to power in 2018.
The TPLF accuses the Ethiopian government and neighboring Eritrea of launching a "coordinated attack" against it.
Abiy, whose forces are backed by troops from Eritrea and fighters from Ethiopia's Amhara region, declared victory in late November.
Fighting and reports of human rights abuses have continued, prompting fears of a protracted conflict with devastating effects on the civilian population.
On Sunday, a number of pro-government rallies took place to hit out at US sanctions slapped on Ethiopia over the brutal war.
The conflict is estimated to have killed thousands of people, with as many as two million people thought to have been forced from their homes.