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Category: Weaponized Starvation

BBC: Ethiopia – Growing concerns for unity as Tigray conflict spreads

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

There are increasing concerns about Ethiopian unity as the conflict in the northern Tigray region escalates.

The nine-month-long war between Tigrayan rebel forces and the Ethiopian army and its allies has been mostly contained in Tigray itself.

But the fighting is spreading into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

This is off the back of Tigrayan forces making significant territorial gains, including capturing the regional capital, Mekelle, in June after Ethiopian troops withdrew and the government declared a unilateral ceasefire.

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Tigray: As famine looms, first WFP humanitarian flight arrives

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

As conflict escalates in the surrounding regions, including neighbouring Afar, safe passage for humanitarian convoys into Tigray remains a primary concern for WFP and the humanitarian community. 

WFP hopes to reach an additional 80,000 people in the northwest, warning that once distributed, food stocks are likely to run out thereafter.

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The Guardian:Calls grow for Ethiopia to declare ceasefire in Tigray to allow aid

Posted on by Yodahe Gebrekirstos

War has disrupted humanitarian deliveries to region where millions of people are facing famine

Pressure is mounting on Ethiopia to declare a ceasefire in the northern province of Tigray to allow humanitarian organisations to reach millions of people who face famine.

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Bloomberg: U.S., Europe Urge Cease-Fire to Avert Famine in Ethiopian Region

Posted on by Yodahe Gebrekirstos

An Ethiopian national working for an Italian charity was killed in the war-hit Tigray region on Saturday after he was “hit by a stray bullet”, according to his employer.

Negasi Kidane, from the Tigrayan city of Adigrat, had been employed by the International Committee for the Development of Peoples since 2016. The group is known by its Italian initials, CISP.

He is the ninth aid worker reported killed in Tigray since fighting broke out there nearly seven months ago.

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Aljazeera: Over 90 percent of people in war-hit Tigray need food aid

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

A total of 5.2 million people in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, or 91 percent of its population, need emergency food aid, the United Nations has warned.

The warning by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) came as it appealed for more than $200m to scale up its response in the northern region where nearly seven months of fighting has caused an increase in already high hunger levels.

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Millions in need amid Ethiopia’s Tigray war

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

According to UN estimates, the fighting has displaced nearly 2 million people. The death toll remains unknown, as the area has been cut off from communication with the outside world. About 4.5 million people need immediate assistance, especially food, as fighting destroyed crops and interrupted last fall’s harvest.

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UNHCR Regional Update #15: Ethiopia Situation (Tigray Region), 12 – 30 April 2021

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

OCHA warned of alarming malnutrition rates in Tigray. Out of +69,000 children screened, +1,900 cases of severe acute malnutrition and +17,700 cases of moderate malnutrition have been identified. Malnutrition has also been found amongst pregnant women. WFP is targeting around 867,000 children and 415,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with their feeding programmes.

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In Ethiopia camp, displaced Tigrayans live with hunger, fear

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Many came with almost nothing. And yet, “I don’t want to think of going back,” said 21-year-old Wegahta Weldie, a student from Mai Kadra, the scene of the six-month-old conflict’s first known massacre.

She recalled stepping on dead bodies there as her family hid in a maize field and then walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Mekele.

“Many people had been killed and it was very dark,” she said. “I could not tell whether they were my relatives or not.”

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Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

Can the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia keep it together? Change has become increasingly bloody it The internet is routinely cut off in Ethiopia, CPJ has noted, including a nationwide shutdown in June 2020. The internet has been disrupted in Tigray since November 2020, when conflict broke out in the regional state, according to media reports. Officials have blamed the ousted Tigray leadership for the disconnection and Ethio Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, said in December that it was making repairs. In an email to CPJ in mid-April 2021, Billene Seyoum Woldeyes, a spokesperson for the Ethiopian prime minister’s office, said that the authorities did not cause the disruption and did not respond to a follow up question about why it had not been fixed. Ethio Telecom did not respond to CPJ’s social media message requesting comment about the ongoing problems.

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