400,000 people facing famine in war-torn Tigray, according to UN

>>ADDIS ABABA: Over 400,000 people have “crossed the threshold into famine” in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, a senior UN official said on Friday, appealing for urgent humanitarian action to help the millions affected by the brutal eight-month long conflict.

Fighting between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was reignited last month when the rebels launched a major counter-offensive that saw them retake their regional capital of Mekele.

This week Ethiopian forces destroyed two key bridges allowing desperately needed aid into the region, prompting charges Addis Ababa was seeking to choke off humanitarian assistance.

Friday saw the UN Security Council hold its first public meeting on a conflict that has left thousands of dead and plunged hundreds of thousands into hunger.

Ramesh Rajasingham, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told that meeting that the situation had “worsened dramatically” as the conflict had reignited in recent weeks.

“More than 400,000 people are estimated to have crossed the threshold into famine and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine,” he said. “Some are suggesting that the numbers are even higher. 33,000 children are severely malnourished.”

“The lives of many of these people [in Tigray] depend on our ability to reach them with food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other humanitarian assistance,” he added. “We need to reach them now. Not next week. Now.”

Ethiopia has rejected charges that it planned to choke off aid to the region.

“The insinuation that we are planning to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale,” said Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen.

Officials are “using every ounce of our strength to extricate” Tigrayan civilians “from the dire situation they find themselves in”, he added.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

He said the move was in response to attacks on federal army camps and declared victory within weeks after federal forces took Mekele.

But after the rebels retook the regional capital and asserted control over the area, the government announced a unilateral ceasefire that the group has dismissed as “a joke”.

The war has already exerted a staggering toll, with the UN estimating 900,000 civilians are “likely already experiencing famine conditions”.