More than 100,000 children in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region could face the most extreme and life-threatening form of malnutrition in the next year, the United Nations children's agency warned on Friday, as humanitarian aid remains blocked from the region of some 6 million people.
The UN estimate, a tenfold increase over the usual caseload in Tigray, is based on “essentially the scenario we're seeing now, in which the conflict escalates and food access is restricted,” Marixie Mercado with UNICEF's emergency response team told The Associated Press.
The world's worst hunger crisis in a decade is unfolding in Tigray, where the U.S. says up to 900,000 people now face famine conditions and international food security experts say the crucial planting season “has largely been missed” because of the war. But she warned of “horrifying numbers of acutely malnourished” people and expressed frustration as food, fuel, cash and other supplies are in short supply. While access inside Tigray has improved after a dramatic turn in the war in June as Ethiopian soldiers withdrew and the government declared a unilateral cease-fire, the UN has said aid workers are running out of the means to help.
UNICEF also said screening data shows that 47% of all pregnant and breastfeeding women in Tigray are acutely malnourished, meaning more risk to both mothers and children.
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