Almost 40% of Tigrayans suffer ‘extreme lack of food’, WFP warns

The United Nations agency raises concern over the alarming situation of food scarcity in Tigray, Ethiopia, the conflict-hit area of the country. Statistics highlight that almost 40% of the people in Tigray are suffering an extreme shortage of food, after a long conflict of 15 months. 

The WFP (World Food Programme) has also warned that the situation of extreme food scarcity and hunger is affecting the neighbouring areas of Afar and Amhara. In its official statement, the UN announced that the grim figure of severe hunger is gripping its grasp tight in the northern regions of Ethiopia. 

Tigray is the northern region in Ethiopia with six million people, where most families have exhausted all the means available to feed themselves, with a three-quarters population struggling to survive in the conflict-torn region. WFP warned that 83% of the people in Tigray have been left food-deprived, including nurses and doctors and most of the population is reduced to begging on the streets.

Ethiopia has been war-ridden since November 2020, which happened after the building tensions between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. It was followed by the Tigrayan forces taking control of most of the territory, and launching counterattacks in the regions of Afar and Amhara. 

This war killed tens of thousands of Tigrayan and forced millions to be displaced, triggering food scarcity and the alarming severe hunger in the regions.