About 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray in famine - UN analysis | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
June 03, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JUNE 03, 2025
About 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray in famine - UN analysis

World+Biz

Reuters
10 June, 2021, 09:10 pm
Last modified: 10 June, 2021, 09:16 pm

Related News

  • Indo-Pak military escalation: Time for UN to act and let Kashmiris decide their fate
  • Israel shuts 6 UN schools for Palestinians
  • Accountability key to resolving Rohingya crisis: Dhaka
  • Bangladesh, UNOPS sign project document to train female peacekeepers
  • What does Guterres’ visit signal for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh?

About 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray in famine - UN analysis

"There is famine now in Tigray," UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said after the report's release on Thursday

Reuters
10 June, 2021, 09:10 pm
Last modified: 10 June, 2021, 09:16 pm
Displaced people are seen at the Shire campus of Aksum University, which was turned into a temporary shelter for people displaced by conflict, in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Displaced people are seen at the Shire campus of Aksum University, which was turned into a temporary shelter for people displaced by conflict, in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

About 350,000 people in Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region are facing "catastrophic" food shortages, according to an analysis by United Nations agencies and aid groups.

"There is famine now in Tigray," UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said after the report's release on Thursday.

"The number of people in famine conditions...is higher than anywhere in the world, at any moment since a quarter million Somalis lost their lives in 2011."

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Already, more than 90% of Tigray's 5.5 million people need emergency food aid.

Fighting in Tigray broke out in November between government troops and the region's former ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Troops from neighboring Eritrea entered the conflict to support the Ethiopian government.

The violence has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 2 million from their homes in the mountainous region.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis concluded that more than 350,000 people were in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) - the most extreme warning - between May and June 2021.

"This severe crisis results from the cascading effects of conflict, including population displacements, movement restrictions, limited humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihood assets, and dysfunctional or non-existent markets," it said.

If the conflict deepens or humanitarian assistance is hampered, most areas of Tigray will be at risk of famine, it said. Even if aid deliveries are stepped up, the situation is expected to worsen through September.

The Ethiopian government disputed the IPC analysis, saying food shortages are not severe and aid is being delivered.

Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told a news conference on Thursday that the government was providing food aid and help to farmers in Tigray.

"They (diplomats) are comparing it with the 1984, 1985 famine in Ethiopia," he said. "That is not going to happen."

But US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said a humanitarian nightmare was unfolding.

"This is not the kind of disaster that can be reversed," she told a virtual US and European Union event on Tigray on Thursday.

She referred to a previous famine in Ethiopia that killed more than 1 million people, saying: "We cannot make the same mistake twice. We cannot let Ethiopia starve. We have to act now."

IPC level 5 is the most extreme warning that can be given and is split into catastrophe and famine.

Famine means at least 20% of the population "has or is most likely to have an extreme deprivation of food and face starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition."

In a famine, a third of children are acutely malnourished and starvation or malnutrition and disease kills one out of 5,000 people each day.

Catastrophe means less than 20 percent of the population is experiencing famine conditions, or mortality levels have not yet reached famine thresholds.

Famine has been declared twice in the past decade - in Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

Mituku Kassa, head of Ethiopia's National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Committee, told reporters on Wednesday: "We don't have any food shortage."

More than 90% of people have been provided with aid, he said, and he accused the TPLF of attacking aid convoys.

"TPLF remnant forces...attack the personnel, they attack the trucks with food."

Reuters could not reach the TPLF for comment and Mituku did not provide details of the alleged attacks.

The United Nations said on Wednesday incidents had been reported where aid was blocked and humanitarian workers had been interrogated, assaulted and detained at military checkpoints.

Unnamed parties to the conflict had also looted and confiscated of humanitarian assets and supplies, the United Nations said.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there had been reports of starvation among displaced people, while there was a severe need for food in northwest Tigray after the burning or looting of harvests. He did not attribute blame.

Top News

Tigray / UN

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Representational image/Reuters
    Overall balance of payment deficit shrinks nearly $5b in July-Apr FY25
  • Representational Photo: Collected
    Exports rebound in May with 11.45% YoY growth, highest in 11 months
  • Salahuddin speaking to reporters after talks with the National Consensus Commission at the Foreign Service Academy on 3 June. Photo: TBS
    BNP wants only national election under 90-day caretaker govt: Salahuddin

MOST VIEWED

  • Advance tax on bus, truck, taxi to rise by up to 88%
    Advance tax on bus, truck, taxi to rise by up to 88%
  • Illustration: Duniya Jahan/TBS
    How Tk5 lakh tax exemption can be availed by salaried individuals
  • 17 makeshift cattle markets leased in Dhaka for Eid: Who gets the most
    17 makeshift cattle markets leased in Dhaka for Eid: Who gets the most
  • Representational image. File photo: Collected
    Primary education to see funding cut, madrasah budget to rise
  • Budget FY26: Housing sector may take a hit, flat prices set to rise
    Budget FY26: Housing sector may take a hit, flat prices set to rise
  • Illustration: Duniya Jahan/TBS
    Interim govt unveils national budget of Tk7.90 lakh crore for FY2025-26; first budget cut in history

Related News

  • Indo-Pak military escalation: Time for UN to act and let Kashmiris decide their fate
  • Israel shuts 6 UN schools for Palestinians
  • Accountability key to resolving Rohingya crisis: Dhaka
  • Bangladesh, UNOPS sign project document to train female peacekeepers
  • What does Guterres’ visit signal for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh?

Features

Illustration: TBS

The GOAT of all goats!

20h | Magazine
Photo: Nayem Ali

Eid-ul-Adha cattle markets

20h | Magazine
Sketch: TBS

Budget FY26: What corporate Bangladesh expects

1d | Budget
The customers in super shops are carrying their purchases in alternative bags or free paper bags. Photo: Mehedi Hasan

Super shops leading the way in polythene ban implementation

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Signs of strain in India-Canada relations

Signs of strain in India-Canada relations

1h | TBS World
What police are doing to reduce sufferings on road and to ensure safety

What police are doing to reduce sufferings on road and to ensure safety

1h | Podcast
The major trade agreements are in the final stages: White House

The major trade agreements are in the final stages: White House

2h | TBS World
The China-United States trade war is about to intensify once again.

The China-United States trade war is about to intensify once again.

3h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net