The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday said more than 90 percent of people in Ethiopia’s troubled northern Tigray region are currently in need of emergency food aid, reported Aljazeera.
“A total of 5.2 million people, equivalent to 91 percent of Tigray’s population, need emergency food assistance due to the conflict,” WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri told reporters in Geneva.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) issued the warning as it appealed for more than $200m to boost its response in the embattled region where nearly seven months of fighting has caused an increase in already-high hunger levels.
“WFP is alarmed at the impact of conflict on already high levels of hunger,” said Phiri. “The WFP is calling for $203m to continue to scale up its response in Tigray to save lives and livelihoods through to the end of the year.”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had ordered a military operation in Tigray in early November 2020 after accusing the northern region’s then-ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of launching attacks on federal army camps.
The Ethiopian forces were backed by troops from Eritrea and fighters from Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Ahmed declared victory at the end of November when the army took control of the regional capital, Mekelle. But fighting and abuses continued in Tigray prompting fears of a conflict with devastating effects on the civilian population.
The conflict is estimated to have killed thousands of people and forced almost two million to flee from their homes.
In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Tigray, described the situation in the region as very horrific, with many people dying due to hunger.
The UN food agency said it had provided emergency aid to more than a million people since it began distributions in northwestern and southern areas of Tigray in March.
