The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is warning of extreme hunger in northern Ethiopia.

Aid agencies face severe challenges delivering supplies to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where government forces have been fighting rebels for more than a year.

No UN food convoy has reached Tigray since mid-December – but the WFP says 100 trucks a day are needed to prevent starvation.

In its latest security assessment, it found more than 80% of families were food insecure, less than a third are getting the daily calories they need, and in the Afar region 28% of children under five are malnourished, well above the UN’s emergency threshold of 15%.

The WFP says northern Ethiopia will need food aid throughout 2022, and is appealing to the warring parties to allow supplies in.

Even this security assessment is based on information from last November. Since then, with almost no aid getting in, the situation is likely to have become far worse.

The UN is asking for $337m (£252m) to fund its operation in northern Ethiopia for the next six months.

Source: bbc