Status: 07/30/2021 3:21 p.m.
According to the UN, fewer and fewer aid deliveries are arriving in the Ethiopian conflict region of Tigray. More than 100,000 children are threatened with life-threatening malnutrition. The EU accuses Ethiopia of using hunger as a weapon.
According to the UN, the humanitarian situation in the Ethiopian conflict region of Tigray is rapidly deteriorating. The UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) reports persistent problems for humanitarian convoys to enter the region and transport urgently needed aid for approximately 5.2 million affected people.
The last convoy, consisting of 50 trucks, reached the city of Mekelle on July 12th. According to the agency, that is by far not enough: “In order to cover the current demand, 500 to 600 truckloads are necessary every week”.
“Worst fears have been confirmed”
According to the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, more than 100,000 children in Tigray could be affected by life-threatening malnutrition in the next twelve months, ten times as many.
“Our worst fears about the health and well-being of the children in this disputed region in northern Ethiopia have been confirmed,” said UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Marcado after returning from a trip to the East African country.
According to health data collected by various aid organizations, just under 18 percent of children are moderately to severely malnourished, UNICEF said. The threshold to an emergency is 15 percent.
Surveys also suggested that almost half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women suffered from acute malnutrition. This raises the risk of further complications.
High risk of disease outbreaks
The food crisis occurs against the background of “extensive and systematic damage” to the entire supply system. There is a high risk of outbreaks of epidemics, especially in overcrowded refugee camps without adequate sanitary facilities, said the UN organization.
A resurgence of fighting in the neighboring administrative regions of Afar and Amhara is making matters worse. Almost 1.5 million people there are already facing acute hunger. Without adequate humanitarian aid, malnutrition among children will rise above the already alarming level.
Humanitarian organizations need free access to Tigray and the other conflict regions and must be able to work there unhindered, demanded the UNICEF spokeswoman.
EU accuses Ethiopia of political calculation
The EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell accused the Ethiopian government of using hunger as a weapon against the population in Tigray. Trucks with essential food are apparently being deliberately prevented from continuing to the conflict region.
One can “less and less resist the conclusion that access to food is used as a weapon of war,” wrote Borrell on Twitter. The responsibility lies with the Ethiopian government.
The country’s government had launched a military offensive in November against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had been in power in the region of the same name until then. The background to this was years of tensions between the TPLF and the central government.
People in Tigray do not feel represented
The TPLF dominated Ethiopia for more than 25 years until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018 and ousted the TPLF. Many people in Tigray feel that they are not represented by the central government and are demanding more autonomy.
In the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia with its around 112 million inhabitants, there are a number of ethnic tensions that have increased under President Abiy. The current conflict has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked havoc.
Famine is the worst form of hunger crisis in which many people die as a result of malnutrition. In Africa, only the drought-related situation in southern Madagascar is considered to be similarly bad.