Ethiopia is facing a human-made famine
What’s happening in Tigray is the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, since the devastating Somalia famine in 2011.
About 350,000 people in Tigray are facing a food “catastrophe,” which means they’re suffering from famine conditions. That classification is based on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global index that relies on assessments from United Nations agencies and other regional and international nongovernmental organizations.
“Catastrophe” is the highest classification, at Level 5. According to the IPC’s assessment, the risk of famine exists in several vulnerable pockets throughout Tigray, but millions of others across the region are at risk of falling into this category. Right now, more than 5.5 million people — about 60 percent of Tigray’s population — are facing acute food insecurity. As many as 2.1 million are in the “emergency” phase, a level below catastrophe, and 3 million people are in the “crisis” phase.
“We’re at the stage where it’s unavoidable that thousands, probably tens of thousands, of children will die of starvation in the next month,” said Alex de Waal, a research professor and executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, who put out a report in April on the famine risks in Tigray.