Article Author:
Reuters
Giulia Paravicini
Nairobi — Nearly two years of civil war in Ethiopia has left nearly half the population of the Tigray region without access to enough food. The World Food Program (WFP) said on Friday that fuel supplies were inadequate.
Malnutrition rates are "soaring" and expected to worsen, despite the resumption of aid delivery after the federal government declared a unilateral ceasefire in his March. the United Nations agency said in an assessment.
In the Tigray, home to about 5.5 million people, services such as banking and telecommunications were cut off days after the withdrawal of national and coalition forces a year ago. . They have not yet recovered, impeding people's ability to buy food, according to the United Nations WFP.
The situation will worsen as people enter peak hunger season until the October harvest," the report said.
Half of the pregnant or lactating women in Tigray, and her one-third of her children under the age of five, are malnourished, leading to stunting and maternal death. was found in the report.
Food aid
In Tigre and the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, also affected by war, an estimated 13 million people are in need of food aid, according to his previous WFP report. 44% increase from in January.
The United Nations said only 1.75 million liters of fuel had entered the Tigray since 1 April. This is less than 20% of the monthly humanitarian needs of the region, even if all supplies were supplied.
Legesse Tulu, a government spokesperson, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the fuel supply shortage.
Hopes of imminent peace talks between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the Tigray, are fading.
The government said earlier this month that it wanted talks "without preconditions", but the Tigray government first sought to restore services to civilians.
Fighting displaced millions, left parts of the Tigray famine, and killed thousands of civilians.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from Tigray, suggested this week that racism is behind the lack of international attention to the plight of civilians in the region.
(Reporting by Giulia Paravicini; Editing by Hereward Holland and Gareth Jones)
