{"id":1359425,"date":"2022-03-04T20:42:34","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T01:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1359425"},"modified":"2022-03-04T20:42:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T01:42:40","slug":"charity-warns-ethiopian-civil-war-placing-millions-on-brink-of-starvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/charity-warns-ethiopian-civil-war-placing-millions-on-brink-of-starvation\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity Warns Ethiopian Civil War Placing Millions on Brink of Starvation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcharity-warns-ethiopian-civil-war-placing-millions-on-brink-of-starvation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1359425&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Ethiopia-640x335-1.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The NGO Refugees International predicted in a call for help this week that famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia could \u201cmirror\u201d the Great Famine of the 1980s, as a result of the ongoing civil war in that country.<\/p>\n<p>The Ethiopian government, led by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has largely blockaded Tigray to prevent critical supplies, reportedly including food, from entering. Human rights organizations have documented extensive atrocities in the war, including attempts to starve civilians as well as the use of rape as a weapon of war and mass killings of civilians by rival ethnic minorities on both sides.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>While the war\u00a0has made few recent headlines in international media, it has raged since November 2020, when members of the Marxist Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), which until recently ruled the country, attacked a military facility in the region. Abiy, a member of the country\u2019s ethnic Oromo majority, launched a full-scale war against the population of Tigray and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/11\/28\/nobel-peace-prize-winning-prime-minister-enters-front-line-of-ethiopian-civil-war\/\">taken<\/a> the front lines of the conflict himself, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/11\/03\/ethiopias-nobel-peace-prize-winner-we-will-bury-this-enemy-with-our-blood-and-bones\/\">encouraging<\/a> Oromos and others supporting the government to \u201cbury this enemy with our blood and bones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups that have been caught in the crossfire between the Tigray and Oromo, including a large Amharic population that, according to a Reuters report in December, has faced widespread rape and torture attacks by Tigray fighters for their perceived support of the government.<\/p>\n<p>Refugees International, a human rights organization active in the area,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.refugeesinternational.org\/reports\/2022\/3\/1\/nowhere-to-run-eritrean-refugees-in-tigray\">asserted<\/a> that the population in Tigray is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe in a report published this week on the conflict.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe Ethiopian government has blocked virtually all food and medical shipments into Tigray, using food as a weapon of war,\u201d senior fellow Sarah Miller wrote in the report. The group has tallied 2.5 million displaced people both within Ethiopia and abroad as a result of the war.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia and Eritrea border each other and fought an extended civil war that ended largely due to Abiy\u2019s contributions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/peace\/2019\/abiy\/facts\/\">resulting<\/a> in his Nobel Peace Prize victory in 2019. Displaced Eritreans in Ethiopia have now been caught up in the civil war, the organization noted.<\/p>\n<p>Refugees International predicted the blockade would lead to a historic crisis:\u00a0\u201cWith starvation deaths mounting each day and as many as 900,000 people in famine conditions, there are fears that the current situation in Ethiopia will mirror the Great Famine of the 1980s, where over 1 million people starved to death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 1983-85 famine in Ethiopia <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia\">affected<\/a> over 7 million people and various estimates list between 300,000 to 1 million people as having died from starvation. The population of the Tigray region was just over 7 million in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The charity\u2019s report further notes, \u201cAcross three regions in Ethiopia, the UN now estimates some 9\u00a0million people need food assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>An anonymous Catholic cleric <a href=\"https:\/\/cruxnow.com\/church-in-africa\/2022\/03\/new-report-highlights-tigray-atrocities-says-ethiopia-could-face-famine\">told<\/a>\u00a0the Catholic news site Crux, \u201cWe have statements indicating that half of the population in Tigray will die of starvation by the end of this year. In a literal sense, yes: We think this is a direction things may take if things continue as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The warnings by the NGO and others echo those of the World Health Organization, which has encouraged Addis Ababa to allow United Nations aid into Tigray. The W.H.O. is currently led by an ethnic Tigray and former minister of the TPLF government in Ethiopia, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whom the Abiy government has accused of attempting to smear the conflict and leverage his U.N. position to benefit the Tigray.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe have approached the prime minister\u2019s office; we have approached the foreign ministry; we have approached all relevant sectors, but no permission,\u201d Tedros <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2022\/01\/13\/w-h-o-s-tedros-wades-ethiopian-civil-war-accuses-government-blocking-aid\/\">lamented<\/a> in January. \u201cHumanitarian access even in conflict is the basics. Even in Syria, we have access, during the worst of conflicts in Syria. In Yemen, the same, we have access. We deliver medicine. Here [in Tigray] nothing, it\u2019s a complete blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine a complete blockade of seven million people for more than a year. And there is no food. There is no medication, no medicine. No electricity. No telecom. No media,\u201d Tedros detailed.<\/p>\n<p>In those remarks, Tedros noted that he was \u201cfrom Tigray,\u201d but dismissed his relationship to the region as coloring his views on the conflict.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBut I am saying this without any bias \u2026 Nowhere in the world you will see a crisis like the one in the northern part of Ethiopia, especially in Tigray \u2026 Lack of medicine has direct impact and people are dying, but lack of food also kills. On top of that, daily drone attacks are killing people,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n<p>While the government appears to have, at press time, superior leverage in fighting and thus has faced more pressure to cease engaging in human rights abuses, a Reuters report from December found that Amharic populations in the country are facing brutality from Tigray fighters as well. Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/12\/29\/w-h-o-chief-tedros-marxist-political-party-accused-of-mass-rape-murder-in-ethiopia\/\">documented<\/a>\u00a0widespread gang rape of Amharic women in small population centers, often not directly by TPLF officials but by volunteers the TPLF encouraged to fight the government alongside it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcross Tigray in July, a Reuters journalist saw hundreds of young Tigrayans, males and females, joining the army. Youths trained in the early hours of the morning, jogging along the road while carrying large wooden logs,\u201d the outlet noted. \u201cIn the small town of Nebelet, newly recruited soldiers marched under heavy rain waving flags of Tigray.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In one town, Reuters found 70 women testifying they were raped by TPLF-affiliated fighters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want them all to be wiped out \u2013 all the Tigrayans. Let their race be wiped out!\u201d one of the women,\u00a0Abay Tsegaye, declared in the story.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations refugee agency <a href=\"https:\/\/addisstandard.com\/news-un-refugee-agency-appeals-for-us205-m-to-assist-1-6-million-people-affected-by-war-in-ethiopia\/\">called<\/a> on Friday for an extra $205 million in funding for food and other basic supplies to Ethiopian civilians, according to the\u00a0<em>Addis Standard<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf the US$205 million, US$117 million will support the needs of Ethiopian IDPs [internally displaced persons] and Eritrean refugees in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, while US$72 million will help us support Ethiopian refugees in Sudan,\u201d the U.N. said, according to the newspaper. \u201cSome US$16 million will be used for preparedness as part of contingency measures for any potential influx into neighboring countries (Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.N. officials had claimed a month ago that Ethiopia was in \u201ca much better place\u201d to end the war, but those hopes have yet to materialize into relief for those affected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is much more conversation and dialogue and talk around the national dialogue itself and the way to peace,\u201d U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed <a href=\"https:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/202202100086.html\">said<\/a> following a visit to the Ethiopian capital in February.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frances Martel on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1646222468875000&#038;usg=AOvVaw1__ppp1QWv9eqrKmuj9YvV\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1646222468875000&#038;usg=AOvVaw3pB323zxHDBfaVfWisSYER\">Twitter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NGO Refugees International predicted in a call for help this week that famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia could \u201cmirror\u201d the Great Famine of the 1980s, as a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}