There are 350,000 people suffering from hunger in Tigray in Ethiopia. The dramatic number comes from the latest analysis of the IPC, Integrated food security phase, an international body which includes 15 agencies including the United Nations, created to define the different phases of food insecurity.
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by Raffaella Scuderi
Mark Lowcock UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, said that 350,000 people in Tigray are already facing a “catastrophic” food shortage, and that another two million are likely to find themselves in similar conditions in a short time. The UN leader said at the moment the ongoing famine in the Ethiopian region is the most serious “since in 2011, 250,000 inhabitants of Somalia lost their lives” due to lack of food.
The Ipc classification of the food emergency
Six days ago the UN undersecretary Mark Lowcock he had sounded the alarm. And he had already pronounced the word famine, in contravention of the official classification, contested because it is considered politicized and “mean”, which provides for 4 levels of severity before talking about famine (fifth level). The five phases are: general food security, moderate food insecurity, acute food and livelihood crisis, humanitarian emergency, famine / humanitarian catastrophe.
According to the IPC, there is talk of famine or humanitarian catastrophe, when: at least 20% of families have to cope with a total lack of food, at least three out of ten people show signs of acute malnutrition, the mortality rate exceeds the two deaths every 10 thousand people a day out of the total population.
Tigray, in satellite photos the evidence of the massacre carried out by the Ethiopian army
The numbers in Tigray and the appeal of the international community
Over 60% of the population, more than 5.5 million people, face high levels of food insecurity. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF are calling for urgent action to respond to this catastrophe. The figures released today by the IPC record the highest number of people classified in an IPC 5 disaster scenario in a single country in the last 10 years.
“The rural communities of northern Ethiopia – said the FAO director general, Qu Dongyu – were particularly affected by the conflict. Many farms have been destroyed and productive goods such as seeds and livestock have been lost. It is imperative to help these communities feed their families and support local food production, paving the way for a faster recovery. But to help people on the brink of famine, we need resources. “
“The brutal reality for our staff in Tigray – explained the executive director of the WFP, David Beasley – is that for every family we reach with life-saving food, there are countless others, especially in rural areas, that we cannot reach. We have called for humanitarian access, but we are still blocked by armed groups. The ability of the Tigray people to access vital services and the WFP to reach these people with food assistance is essential to avoiding a catastrophe. Access must extend far beyond major cities to reach people in dire need wherever they are. “
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“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Tigray,” he concluded Henrietta Fore, director general of UNICEF – we see more and more children coming dangerously close to disease and potential death from malnutrition. We are working with our partners to provide nutrition, medical care and clean water. Without humanitarian access to augment our response, an estimated 33,000 severely malnourished children in currently inaccessible areas of Tigray are at high risk of death. The world cannot allow this to happen. “
Ethiopia, origin and reasons for the crisis
by Giampaolo Cadalanu
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