Zürcher Nachrichten - Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face 'extreme lack of food': UN

EUR -
AED 3.879921
AFN 70.774705
ALL 97.658441
AMD 409.488241
ANG 1.905213
AOA 963.376768
ARS 1054.320885
AUD 1.627536
AWG 1.901401
AZN 1.801486
BAM 1.943481
BBD 2.134372
BDT 126.319293
BGN 1.9558
BHD 0.398119
BIF 3061.256379
BMD 1.056334
BND 1.412811
BOB 7.304697
BRL 6.133815
BSD 1.057139
BTN 89.15023
BWP 14.343757
BYN 3.459372
BYR 20704.14942
BZD 2.130774
CAD 1.478319
CDF 3026.39715
CHF 0.935785
CLF 0.037514
CLP 1035.112444
CNY 7.631383
CNH 7.652882
COP 4731.320676
CRC 539.798787
CUC 1.056334
CUP 27.992855
CVE 110.756993
CZK 25.285045
DJF 187.73139
DKK 7.458754
DOP 63.776161
DZD 141.547711
EGP 52.10252
ERN 15.845012
ETB 128.925753
FJD 2.399199
FKP 0.831283
GBP 0.831356
GEL 2.884081
GGP 0.831283
GHS 17.012698
GIP 0.831283
GMD 74.999517
GNF 9116.163919
GTQ 8.168224
GYD 221.158132
HKD 8.219706
HNL 26.472039
HRK 7.535367
HTG 138.99552
HUF 407.89813
IDR 16738.565373
ILS 3.965716
IMP 0.831283
INR 89.179585
IQD 1384.325909
IRR 44463.742746
ISK 147.284729
JEP 0.831283
JMD 167.357086
JOD 0.749047
JPY 164.334965
KES 136.790508
KGS 91.061436
KHR 4278.153377
KMF 492.621303
KPW 950.700505
KRW 1481.899804
KWD 0.324971
KYD 0.880916
KZT 521.017397
LAK 23181.253406
LBP 94594.723681
LKR 308.961568
LRD 194.36531
LSL 19.278261
LTL 3.11908
LVL 0.638966
LYD 5.144042
MAD 10.518957
MDL 19.048258
MGA 4917.235703
MKD 61.531456
MMK 3430.932127
MNT 3589.423527
MOP 8.469315
MRU 42.121293
MUR 49.531301
MVR 16.320345
MWK 1833.795702
MXN 21.69129
MYR 4.711444
MZN 67.498546
NAD 19.277515
NGN 1771.95785
NIO 38.851914
NOK 11.767666
NPR 142.642227
NZD 1.796592
OMR 0.406667
PAB 1.057099
PEN 4.016129
PGK 4.156411
PHP 62.152628
PKR 293.713639
PLN 4.341243
PYG 8250.095155
QAR 3.845638
RON 4.975967
RSD 116.975311
RUB 104.047459
RWF 1441.89612
SAR 3.969228
SBD 8.855836
SCR 14.40717
SDG 635.387436
SEK 11.603515
SGD 1.418836
SHP 0.831283
SLE 24.100276
SLL 22150.800682
SOS 603.695541
SRD 37.267363
STD 21863.98426
SVC 9.24937
SYP 2654.071001
SZL 19.278362
THB 36.91096
TJS 11.263007
TMT 3.707733
TND 3.32481
TOP 2.474044
TRY 36.2854
TTD 7.183466
TWD 34.278574
TZS 2809.848602
UAH 43.672836
UGX 3879.409365
USD 1.056334
UYU 44.567497
UZS 13547.485199
VES 47.531547
VND 26772.789136
VUV 125.410144
WST 2.954552
XAF 651.855898
XAG 0.034887
XAU 0.000411
XCD 2.854796
XDR 0.796378
XOF 651.239726
XPF 119.331742
YER 263.875515
ZAR 19.259818
ZMK 9508.281216
ZMW 28.91707
ZWL 340.139167
  • RBGPF

    -0.8500

    59.34

    -1.43%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.61

    +0.28%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.73

    -0.08%

  • SCS

    -0.3000

    13.37

    -2.24%

  • BCC

    1.4200

    142.55

    +1%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0500

    7.11

    -0.7%

  • NGG

    -0.7800

    62.12

    -1.26%

  • RIO

    -0.5800

    60.62

    -0.96%

  • BCE

    -0.4800

    27.21

    -1.76%

  • RELX

    -0.4700

    46.12

    -1.02%

  • GSK

    -0.4100

    35.11

    -1.17%

  • VOD

    0.2800

    8.75

    +3.2%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • AZN

    0.1000

    65.29

    +0.15%

  • BTI

    0.1800

    35.42

    +0.51%

  • BP

    0.4100

    28.57

    +1.44%

Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face 'extreme lack of food': UN
Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face 'extreme lack of food': UN

Nearly 40 percent of Tigrayans face 'extreme lack of food': UN

Nearly 40 percent of people in Ethiopia's Tigray are suffering "an extreme lack of food" in the face of an extended de-facto blockade of the war-hit region, a UN agency said Friday.

Text size:

The dire assessment published by the World Food Programme (WFP) comes as humanitarian groups are forced to increasingly curtail activities because of fuel and supply shortages, with aid having to be delivered by foot.

Fresh fighting in northern Ethiopia, which has been gripped by deadly conflict for almost 15 months, is also limiting avenues for getting in aid.

The data was included in what the WFP described as the first reliable food security assessment conducted since a UN report more than six months ago, which estimated that hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray faced "famine-like conditions."

The new assessment found 4.6 million people in Tigray -- or 83 percent of the population -- were food-insecure, two million of them "severely" so.

"Families are exhausting all means to feed themselves, with three quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies to survive," WFP said in a statement.

"Diets are increasingly impoverished as food items become unavailable and families rely almost exclusively on cereals while limiting portion sizes and the number of meals they eat each day to make whatever food is available stretch further," it added.

WFP also sounded the alarm about rising hunger in neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, which have been hit hard by fighting in recent months.

"WFP is doing all it can to ensure our convoys with food and medicines make it through the frontlines," said WFP's East Africa director, Michael Dunford.

"But if hostilities persist, we need all the parties to the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause and formally agreed transport corridors, so that supplies can reach the millions besieged by hunger," Dunford said.

- Renewed fighting -

Fighting broke out in Tigray in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

After initially losing control of Tigray's cities and towns, the TPLF regrouped and retook the region in June, then launched offensives into Afar and Amhara.

In November 2021 the rebels claimed to be within roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) of the capital Addis Ababa, prompting hasty evacuations as countries including the US and France urged their citizens to leave.

The government launched a counter-offensive, however, retaking lost territory in Amhara and Afar.

This week the TPLF said it had begun "robust" military operations in Afar, describing the move as a response to attacks by pro-government forces on its positions.

- Delivering aid on foot -

Tigray itself has for months been subject to what the UN says is a de-facto blockade.

Washington accuses Abiy's government of blocking aid, while Addis Ababa blames rebel incursions.

Earlier Friday the UN's humanitarian coordination office OCHA said all international aid groups in the region were completely out of fuel and had been reduced to delivering assistance to malnourished civilians on foot.

Local groups were also struggling to reach people in need because of fuel and cash shortages, it said.

Malnutrition continues to soar, it said, with 4.2 percent of screened children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition during the latest week for which data is available -- "a seriously alarming level".

Last week, the UN said food distribution in Tigray had reached an all-time low.

Tigray's pre-war government said this week it had recorded 369 deaths of children under five that it attributed to the blockade, up from nearly 200 in November.

The figure could not be independently verified.

I.Widmer--NZN