The number of people facing starvation in the Ethiopian crisis region of Tigray has increased further despite a unilateral ceasefire. “It is estimated that more than 400,000 people have crossed the famine threshold and another 1.8 million people are on the verge of famine,” Ramesh Rajasingham, acting head of the UN Emergency Relief Office in Ocha, said on Friday at a special session of the United Nations Security Council in New York. Other data even assumed that even more people were starving.
The conflict between the government and local rebels in Tigray escalated in November. The Ethiopian government had launched a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had been in power in the region of the same name up to that point.
Hundreds of thousands had to flee because of the conflict, which became more and more complex and also includes armed forces from neighboring Eritrea. On Monday evening, the Ethiopian government surprisingly announced a unilateral ceasefire – the regional capital Mekelle has since been under the control of the rebels.
Rajasingham said before the Security Council that two million people are still displaced in the region in the north of the country. In addition, 5.2 million are dependent on humanitarian aid, “the vast majority of them women or children”.
The ceasefire should actually allow humanitarian organizations to work unhindered in the region. However, the access of the aid organizations has been hampered for months by the security situation, bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of electricity, internet and telephone connections. Most recently, an important humanitarian access bridge to Tigray was destroyed.
Meanwhile, the UN Representative for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, warned that despite progress on the ceasefire, there was “potential for further confrontation and a rapid deterioration in the security situation” in Tigray.