A senior official in Tigray’s Atsbi district said 138 people have died of starvation as the compounded effects of drought and a post-conflict humanitarian crisis continue to push millions deep into food insecurity across Northern Ethiopia.
According to Atsbi’s administrator Mezgebe Girmay twenty children were among those who tragically lost their lives. The situation, Mezgebe added, was worsening by the day. Farmers in the district described the severe drought affecting their communities as the worst they had seen. At least eight schools are on the verge of closure as food shortages affect several aspects of life.
Tigray’s regional education bureau on the other hand says hunger is prompting an alarming upsurge in school dropouts. Assessments carried out by the bureau and its partners show only 40 per cent of the 2.4 million students expected to enroll in schools are regularly attending their classes. The bureau says an urgent response is required as food shortages could even deteriorate with minimal harvest expected in the coming months.
Tigray’s interim administration, set up last year after a peace deal signed between the federal government and the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) ended a two-year war in the region, recently said famine rivalling the largely documented 1984-5 crisis could be on the horizon.
Federal authorities deny the emergence of famine and argue they’re providing aid.
There’s little reconstruction after the peace deal and Tigray still hosts hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. The US and the UN had stopped providing food aid to Ethiopia for months over allegations of theft until they announced in November the resumption of aid.
More than a thousand people are reported dead in recent months in the region due to lack of food.
The drought and the food insecurity also affect districts in neighboring Amhara.
