Food insecurity and hunger are on the rise in northern Ethiopia, according to the World Food Program, as the conflict in Tigray spreads to neighboring regions.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announces that the first round of food distributions in northern Ethiopia’s Amhara and Afar provinces has been completed. The effort, which began in mid-August, has reached an estimated 300,000 individuals whose lives have been disrupted by the extension of the Tigray violence into their areas.
The World Food Program, on the other hand, reports that distributions in Tigray are behind schedule. Trucks remain stranded in the Afar region, unable to deliver critical supplies to millions of Tigrayan civilians living in deplorable conditions, according to the report.
According to a June United Nations assessment of the severity of food insecurity in Tigray, up to 400,000 people are on the verge of starvation. Anecdotal indications from all three conflict-affected districts, according to WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri, indicate that food shortages are on the rise.
“In Afar and Amhara, our teams have seen hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes,” Phiri said. “It is absolutely vital that we have the full cooperation and support of all parties to the conflict so that we can reach all affected populations with urgently needed food assistance before we have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands across all of northern Ethiopia.”
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations, since the fight between the Ethiopian military and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front began in November. According to the United Nations, 5.2 million people, or 90 percent of Tigray’s population, require humanitarian assistance.
In the next wave of food distributions, WFP plans to reach roughly 3.5 million people across all three regions, according to Phiri. However, he realizes that a number of roadblocks remain in his way of achieving that aim.
“The food pipeline in Tigray remains hand-to-mouth, with a multitude of issues affecting the free movement of convoys…Additionally, the vast majority of commercial trucks are not able to return from Tigray which is one of the major impediments to the delivery of cargo as we struggle to convene convoys,” Phiri said.
According to Phiri, just 637 vehicles have made it to Tigray, carrying only 11% of the humanitarian goods required in the region. He claims that in order to feed the populace appropriately, 100 trucks loaded with life-saving goods must arrive in the besieged region every day.
