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Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: UN aid chief says there is famine

11 June 2021 08:05 (UTC +04:00)

UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has said there is famine in northern Ethiopia after the release of a UN-backed analysis of the situation.
"There is famine now," he said, adding: "This is going to get a lot worse."

The analysis found that 350,000 people were living in "severe crisis" in the war-torn Tigray region, as well as neighbouring Amhara and Afar.
Tigray has been devastated by fighting between government forces and rebels, with 1.7 million people displaced.

According to the analysis, the food situation in the region has reached the level of a "catastrophe", which it defines as starvation and death affecting small groups of people spread over large areas.