UN Security Council Warned of Dire Crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray
- Aid agencies need additional $400 million to address situation
- U.S. envoy, UN aid chief demand Eritrean forces leave Tigray
The humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region continues to deteriorate with the risk of famine and escalating violence “higher than we imagined even as recently as a month ago,” the United Nations humanitarian chief said at a briefing Thursday for the Security Council.
It has been four months since the conflict broke out after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops to respond to an attack on a military base by forces allied with the then Tigray regional administrators, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
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Currently, 4.5 million of the region’s roughly 6 million people need food assistance, with much of the area inaccessible, according to Mark Lowcock, UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. The Ethiopian federal government and aid agencies have dispatched food for 3.8 million people.