UN says 350,000 face famine in Tigray, millions in danger
June 11, 2021
United Nations experts say some 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray province are acutely threatened by starvation, with millions more at risk. Agencies and aid groups say conflict is to blame.
Relief has reached some areas but in others the path is blocked by armed groupsImage: Ben Curtis/AP Photo/picture alliance
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More than 350,000 people in embattled Tigray are gravely threatened by famine, with most of the province's 5.5 million people in need of food aid, a UN report said on Thursday.
UN agencies say the food crisis in Tigray was the worst since the famine that gripped Somalia from 2010 to 2012 killed more than a-quarter-of-a-million Somalis — more than half of them children.
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Warning to the world
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told a virtual high-level meeting of representatives from the G7 group of major industrialized countries that "there is famine now'' in Tigray.
Lowcock warned that "this is going to get a lot worse," but said "the worst can still be avoided" with immediate action.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, UN World Food Program and UNICEF on Thursday warned that another 2 million people "could quickly die of starvation without urgent action."
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
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Lowcock lamented the fact that some of the key UN agencies seeking to help had "essentially no money."
"We really do need everybody to step up," he said.
David Beasley, head of the UN World Food Program, said countless people, especially in rural areas, could not be reached with aid because armed groups were blocking access, he said.
The agencies stressed they were prepared to provide aid but first that they first required access to the region devastated by conflict.
The Ethiopian government launched a military offensive against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in northern Ethiopia in November. The TPLF had held power in the Tigray region for years prior to the current government.
Hostilities soon spiraled into a complex conflict that involved the neighboring country of Eritrea, which fought a war with the TPLF-led Ethiopia.
What did the analysis find?
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, published on Thursday, said the 350,000 people were deemed to be living in the index's most acute "catastrophe" phase.
For some 3.1 million people food shortages had reached "crisis" levels with some 2.1 million living in "emergency" conditions.
"This severe crisis results from the cascading effects of conflict, including population displacements, movement restrictions, limited humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihood assets, and dysfunctional or non-existent markets," the report said.
"If the conflict further escalates or, for any other reason, humanitarian assistance is hampered, most areas of Tigray will be at risk of famine."
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen dismissed the UN report as disinformation.
The IPC is a global partnership of 15 UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations, which prepared the report. Its five categories of food security range from people who have enough to eat to populations facing "Famine-Humanitarian Catastrophe."
