UN Analysis Says Over 350,000 People In Ethiopia's Tigray Region Facing Famine

Umer Jamshaid Published June 10, 2021 | 09:30 PM

More than 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray region are currently experiencing famine, the latest UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis said on Thursday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2021) More than 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray region are currently experiencing famine, the latest UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis said on Thursday.

"An IPC analysis update conducted in Tigray and the neighboring zones of Amhara and Afar concludes that over 350,000 people are in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) between May and June 2021," the analysis said.

The number of people facing catastrophic hunger is the highest since the 2011 famine in Somalia, which killed up to 260,000 people.

Despite the significant humanitarian assistance that reached as many as 5 million people in the last few months, some 5.

5 million people, or 61 percent of those living in the area, experience high levels of acute food insecurity, the analysis said.

Some 3.1 million people are at the crisis level of food insecurity, and 2.1 million find themselves in the emergency phase. By September, the situation in Tigray might worsen, bringing the number of people in catastrophic food scarcity to 400,000, the analysis projected.

Fighting in the province of Tigray broke out in November 2020 after the Ethiopian government accused the local ruling party - the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - of attacking a regional military base to hijack weapons and arm anti-government militias.