Fighting in the Tigray region, combined with the pandemic, drought, and an upsurge in locusts, is pushing hundreds of thousands into catastrophic hunger.
Adele Khodr, Unicef’s representative in Ethiopia, said there was an urgent need for aid supplies to reach parts of Tigray that had not been accessible for months.
“We know that we have 33,000 children at high risk of morbidity and mortality, of being very severely sick and eventually dying. We need to reach those children as fast as possible,” she said. A lack of phone or internet, however, would hamper any aid effort.
“If we do not have telecommunication equipment, we cannot send people into the field and ensure their safety. It’s very simple,” she said.
Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, deployed federal troops in Tigray last November after attacks by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces on army bases. Since then, the northern province has been locked in a deadly conflict, which has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. The UN has said an estimated 350,000 people are now on the verge of famine.
Over 5 million people face extreme hunger as the Tigray conflict surges past six months
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Planting season comes to a halt as thousands of farmers lost tools, seeds and livestock
Six months since the conflict erupted in Tigray, thousands of farmers have nothing to plant ahead of the rainy season as the crisis compounded by climate-fuelled locust devastated their tools and livestock and pushed over 5 million people to extreme levels of hunger, warned Oxfam today.
Gezahegn Kebede Gebrehana, Oxfam’s Country Director in Ethiopia said:
“Farming should be beginning now ahead of the long rainy season in June, but it has come to a total halt due to conflict and the absence of rain. Many farmers have no seeds to plant, and their oxen and tools were looted or destroyed in the conflict. Trade and market exchanges have stagnated as people fear a resurgence of fighting.”
Int l NGO Oxfam has warned that 5M people in Tigray face extreme hunger Addis Getachew | 04.05.2021 A view from the Kedamay Weyane livestock market in Mekelle city of the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia. ( FILE PHOTO - Anadolu Agency )
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Ethiopia on Tuesday described international anti-poverty NGO Oxfam’s claim that 5 million people in the country’s northernmost region of Tigray face extreme hunger as falsified information.
“Six months since the conflict erupted in Tigray, thousands of farmers have nothing to plant ahead of the rainy season as the crisis compounded by climate-fueled locust devastated their tools and livestock and pushed over 5 million people to extreme levels of hunger,” Oxfam said in a statement.