Unicef: 350,000 people in northern Ethiopia are threatened with starvation

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A civil war is raging in the Ethiopian region of Tigray (archive image)

Photo: Ben Curtis / AP

In the face of hundreds of thousands of people threatened by starvation in Ethiopia, several UN organizations have sounded the alarm. According to a recent report by the United Nations, more than 350,000 people in the northern region of Tigray live in "catastrophic conditions" - the highest level (5) of an internal categorization of food insecurity. This is the largest number of people affected in a single country for a decade, said the food and agriculture organization, the world food program and the children's aid organization Unicef ​​on Thursday.

In addition, two million people are in emergency level 4 "and could quickly die of starvation without urgent measures".

The UN organizations made it clear that they were ready to fight hunger in Ethiopia and to increase humanitarian aid - although access to the embattled Tigray must be guaranteed.

The background to this is a conflict that 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 until then.

Previously there had been years of tension between the TPLF and the central government.

The fighting in northern Ethiopia soon turned into a complex conflict in which neighboring Eritrea is also embroiled.

The ongoing conflict has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked havoc.

The American Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in New York on Thursday: “A famine may already be underway in certain areas that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands.

It's indecent. "

sol / dpa