UN reports ‘unprecedented’ malnutrition in Tigray
>>ADDIS ABABA: The UN warned of “unprecedented” malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, in a report published hours after the government sparked outrage by expelling senior UN officials.
The latest situation report from the UN’s humanitarian coordination office, posted online late on Thursday, also described “alarming” malnutrition among children as fears of mass starvation grow nearly 11 months after northern Ethiopia erupted in conflict.
“Of the more than 15,000 pregnant and lactating women screened during the reporting period, more than 12,000 women, or about 79%, were diagnosed with acute malnutrition,” the report said.
The level of moderate malnutrition among children under five “is also exceeding global emergency threshold of 15%, at about 18%, while cases of children with severe malnutrition is 2.4%, above the alarming 2% level,” it said.
On Thursday Ethiopia announced it would expel seven senior UN officials for “meddling” in its affairs, including the local heads of the UN children’s
agency Unicef and its humanitarian coordination office.
The UN officials were given 72 hours to leave the country.
The United Nations issued a formal protest over Ethiopia’s decision to expel the officials, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday.
He said the Ethiopian prime minister had earlier in the day called UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has previously said he was “shocked” by the decision.
The formal notification of a protest came as diplomats held an emergency Security Council meeting behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the matter.
In a statement released late on Friday in Ethiopia, the country’s foreign ministry accused the officials of diverting “humanitarian assistance to the TPLF” — the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which has been locked in a monthslong battle with government troops.
It said the officials were responsible for the “dissemination of misinformation and politicisation of humanitarian assistance”.
But the statement provided no proof to support any of the claims.