A NEW DESTRUCTIVE EU ASSESSMENT: Ethiopia's new estimate of the World Food Program (WFP) shows that a record nine million people are suffering from acute hunger in three regions, affected by the conflicts in northern Ethiopia.
A United Nations survey conducted in Tigris before the outbreak of the conflict in November 2020 showed that 93% of the population has enough to eat. Now, 15 months later, the UN reports that 83% of the population suffers from food shortages, and almost 40% suffer from acute hunger.
The World Food Program states that 13 percent of children in that area are younger than five, as well as half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. WFP spokesman Thomson Feary says that the lack of proper nutrition leads to low body weight of the baby at birth, as well as developmental delays and death of the mother, Voice of America reports. He says that people who cannot feed themselves resort to extreme measures in order to survive.
"The diet is getting poorer as groceries become inaccessible and families rely almost exclusively on grains, while limiting portion sizes and meals, eating whatever is available every day to further expand their food," Firi said.
As the war in Tigray spread to northern Ethiopia, famine also spread to the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar. Firi says the fighting and displacement caused by the conflict is raising the rate of hunger and malnutrition to dangerous levels in those regions.
"The WFP estimates that families affected by the crisis in northern Ethiopia have received less than 30 percent of their calorie needs on average in the last few months, which has pushed people even deeper into the crisis," Firi said. - It is expected that this permanent humanitarian aid in food will be mandatory at least during 2022.
Despite numerous challenges, WFP reports that since March it has managed to deliver food aid to nearly four million people across northern Ethiopia. However, intense fighting in the region has prevented food convoys from reaching Tigray since mid-December.
The WFP urges the warring parties to agree to a humanitarian break so that the agencies can safely transport food, medicine and other essential aid through the front lines, and adds that the lives, health and well-being of millions of civilians depend on it.
