Although aid delivery resumed after the federal government declared a unilateral ceasefire in March, malnutrition rates have “exploded” and are expected to worsen, the UN agency said. in an assessment.
Services such as banks and telecommunications were cut in Tigray, home to around 5.5 million people, days after the national army and allied forces withdrew a year ago. They have yet to be restored, hampering people’s ability to buy food, WFP said.
“Hunger has worsened, malnutrition rates have soared, and the situation is expected to worsen as people enter the peak period of hunger until this year’s harvest in October,” the report said.
Half of pregnant and nursing women in Tigr suffer from malnutrition, as well as a third of children under five, leading to stunted growth and maternal deaths, according to the report.
FOOD AID
Across Tigray and neighboring war-affected Afar and Amhara regions, an estimated 13 million people are in need of food assistance, a 44% increase on the previous WFP report. in January.
The United Nations said that since April 1, only 1,750,000 liters of fuel had entered Tigray, less than 20 percent of the region’s monthly humanitarian needs, if all supplies entered.
Legesse Tulu, the government spokesman, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the fuel shortage.
Hopes of imminent peace talks between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls Tigray, are fading, with both sides accusing the other of not wanting to sit down at the negotiating table.
The government said earlier this month it wanted talks “without preconditions”, while the Tigray government has called for the restoration of services to civilians first.
The fighting has displaced millions of people, pushed parts of Tigray into starvation conditions and killed thousands of civilians.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Tigray, suggested this week that racism was at the root of the international community’s lack of attention to the plight of civilians in the region. .