Panafrican News Agency

UN report paints bleak picture of food situation in Ethiopian regions formerly affected by conflict

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – The United Nations has warned that malnutrition rates among children and pregnant and lactating women in Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara and Afar, remained alarmingly high, reaching 95% among screened women during the week in Tigray, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a report it published on Thursday.

The report, received by PANA in Khartoum, pointed out that the ongoing fighting in Afar continues to drive large-scale displacement and increased needs in the region, and to block the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray.

It said the current situation in northern Ethiopia remains tense and volatile, and that the situation in Tigray and Amhara regions was relatively calm last week with static lines of contact, heavy clashes were reported in Afar Region, along the border with Tigray, including in Abala, Berhale, Dalol, Erebti, Koneba and Megale Woredas.

“These recent hostilities are further putting civilian lives at risk, increasing the humanitarian needs notably through higher populations’ displacement impacting livelihoods, and restricted access hindering humanitarian delivery to affected areas in Afar," the UN said in a report it published on Thursday.

The report quoted Afar regional authorities as claiming that more than 200,000 people have been displaced due to the recent fighting in the region and are scattered in remote areas with little or no access to critical items such as food and water.

Reportedly, several internally displaced persons (IDPs) have arrived in Afdera town, OCHA said, adding that humanitarian partners could not verify the displacement figures as well as assess the needs of the displaced populations due to access constraints.

According to the OCHA report, the situation of the newly displaced people, however, is anticipated to be dire. “This wave of IDPs comes on top of a previous caseload of previously displaced people, who have been returning to their places of origin, thus increasing the number of vulnerable people in need of urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance.”

The UN report complained that the fighting in Afar continued impeding the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray by road, via Semera-Abala-Mekelle, which has not been possible since 15 December.

Further, the level of humanitarian supplies that was allowed through the Semera-Abbala-Mekelle route has been far below what is needed for months.

Overall, 1,338 trucks have entered the region since 12 July, which “represents 9 per cent of the required supplies needed to meet the vast scale of humanitarian needs of 5.2 million people, or 90 per cent of the population in Tigray.”

The UN report warned that a new food security assessment by World Food Programme released on 28 January shows that “almost 40 per cent of the people in Tigray are suffering from an extreme lack of food”.

It quoted the study as revealing that 83 percent of people (4.6 million people) are food insecure, while 13 per cent of children under five and half of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

The report concluded that across northern Ethiopia, it is estimated that on average, crisis-affected families were getting less than 30 per cent of their caloric needs in the past months.

“It is expected that constant humanitarian food assistance will be required at least throughout 2022. Meanwhile, more than 9 million people in northern Ethiopia need humanitarian food assistance.”

-0- PANA MO/VAO 10Feb2022