Eritrea denies allegations of aid obstruction but Abiy government's documents suggest soldiers have been plundering food supplies, stoking fears of starvation deaths, and blocking access to Ethiopian checkpoints.
The UN humanitarian chief warned the grave humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region is deteriorating, with no sign of Eritrean troops withdrawing and alarmingly widespread reports of systematic rape and other sexual violence.
UN humanitarian agency says the risk of large-scale famine in the Arab world’s poorest country “has never been more acute."
UNICEF expects that 10.4 million children will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021 due to prolonged conflicts, internal displacement and the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Food Program was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts "to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."
In a call to action, four UN agencies warn that growing malnutrition will have long-term consequences, transforming individual tragedies into a generational catastrophe.
Signs of mounting hunger are already being felt around the region, where desperate citizens are violating quarantines to go out in search of money and food and hanging red and white flags from their homes in a cry for aid.
UNHCR said Yemen's health care system "has in effect collapsed", with the virus thought to be spreading throughout the country, and appealed for urgent funding last week.
The international community must act in tandem to prevent a major food shortage that will disproportionately hurt developing countries.
Experts warn that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic will cause global famines of 'biblical proportions'.
Wealthy nations will have less food security as developing nations cut back on food exports.
Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Syria among the eight nations accounting for two-thirds of the total number of people worldwide exposed to the risk of famine, report says.
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