UN shares alarming numbers as it provides food aid to Ethiopia's Tigray region under WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme has provided emergency food assistance to one million people since it began distribution in March. The UN is, however, alarmed about the hunger levels in Ethiopia's Tigray. The UN has said that more than 90 per cent of people in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region need emergency food aid. They have appealed for $203 million to ramp up the response needed for people affected by the conflict.

People in Tigray need food assistance

Tomson Phiri, World Food Programme spokesman told reporters in Geneva that 5.2 million people need food assistance due to the conflict in Tigray. He said that WFP provided emergency aid to more than a million people since it began distribution in Tigray in March. He said that they are concerned about the number of people facing hunger and require nutrition support. They have appealed for $203 million to scale up the response needed for people in Tigray to save lives and livelihoods.

WFP is responsible for emergency food assistance across Northwestern and Southern zones of Tigray and will scale up operations to reach 2.1 million people in need of food assistance. Since April, it has managed to access all 13 districts of Northwestern and assisted 885,000 people. WFP has started a second six-week round of emergency food assistance. WFP expects to assist about 80,000 people of the nearly 200,000 target population within the first few days of operations.

The conflict in the region started after the ruling TPLF party, a minority party at the centre but a strong and powerful group in the region, allegedly attacked a military base of the federal forces on November 4. The attack was followed by Ahmed's government launching a military offensive. The fighting and abuses continue in Tigray even after six months of the attack. 

IMAGE: AP