Tigray forces in Ethiopia say at least 150 people starved to death last month in the Tigray region amid an almost complete blockade of food aid by federal and Allied authorities
NAIROBI, Kenya – At least 150 people starved to death last month in the Tigray region of Ethiopia amid a near-complete blockade of food aid by federal and Allied authorities, according to Tigray forces. that about half a million people face hunger.
The starvation deaths occurred in six communities, as well as in camps for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in the city of Shire, Tigray’s Office of Foreign Affairs reported Monday. It is the largest public assessment of starvation deaths, although The Associated Press reported at least 125 deaths in a single district earlier this year.
Food aid was depleted last month in Tigray, a region of 6 million people, as the United Nations has described intense searches and delays in humanitarian work by Ethiopian authorities who fear the aid will reach Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces for the past ten months after a political downfall.
“The complete depletion of food stocks has meant that IDP camps are not receiving aid and the host communities, which are now running out of food, can no longer support them,” the statement said. Tigray.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to the request for comment. The government has claimed that aid reaches Tigray and has blamed Tigray’s forces and insecurity for any problems.
The International Organization for Migration, which says more than 2 million people are displaced in Tigray, did not immediately respond to a question about starvation deaths, but the agency noted last month that “the capacity to ‘accommodation seems to have reached its limit’ by the local population who support most of them.
The more than two-week-old first aid convoy arrived in the regional capital of Tigray, Mekele, on Monday, but the World Food Program has said a convoy of about 100 trucks is needed to reach urgent needs every day. of more than 5 million people.
Telecommunications, electricity and banking services have been cut off again in Tigray since Tigray forces recaptured much of the region in June. While witnesses have informed the PA that access to the region is safer and easier, they say the declining supply of food, fuel and cash makes it increasingly impossible to help the hungry.
Since then, the war has spread to the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, Ethiopia, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The International Committee of the Red Cross’s health facilities in these regions “have received an increasing number of injuries in recent weeks,” the ICRC said on Tuesday.
“Unless the fight is over, we can only see that the situation is deteriorating extensively in the coming weeks or months,” PAM spokesman Gordon Weiss told the AP. “We knew there were about 400,000 people outside of starvation conditions (in Tigray) in June. We haven’t really been able to assess the situation since then, it’s been too difficult to do, but we can expect this population to have grown and their conditions have deteriorated. “
The United Nations, the United States and others are urging warring sides to stop fighting and find a way to negotiate for peace, but the Ethiopian government this year declared the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which once dominated the national government, a terrorist group.
Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael, in a letter dated September 3, seen by the PA, and sent to more than 50 heads of state and government and multilateral organizations, calls for pressure on Ethiopia for the “immediate uprising and unconditional siege of Tigray “and” A global and internationally sponsored negotiation “for a ceasefire.