Food crisis in Ethiopia: UN aid chief announces famine

"There’s a famine here right now and the situation is getting worse," : UN humanitarian chief Mark Locke.

UN humanitarian chief Mark Locke says there is a famine in northern Ethiopia. "There’s a famine here right now and the situation is getting worse," he said after analyzing the situation with the help of the United Nations.

The study found that 350,000 people in the war-torn Tigris region were in dire straits. The situation is similar in Amhara and Afar.

Fighting between government forces and insurgents is raging, and 1.7 million people have been displaced so far.

According to research, there is a severe food crisis in the region. People are forced to lose their lives due to famine and there is a fear that this number will increase. UNICEF has also called on the international community to take steps to resolve the crisis.

Different statements by government and citizens

The study, called the Integrated Phase of Classification (IPC), has not been supported by the Ethiopian government, which claims to have expanded its humanitarian work in the country. However, the response of citizens is different.

The people of Kwafta Humera, west of Tigrei, say they are starving. "We have nothing to eat," said one man on the phone. He complained that his crops and animals had been looted during the seven-month war.

"We were eating the rest of the grain left or was hidden by the militia. We don't have anything now,  even though everyone was on the verge of death, no help had come so far," he said.