Edit: Ahmed Al-Kumi

Today, the United Nations warned that about 40% of the population of the Tigray region of Ethiopia, which has been experiencing war for more than a year, is suffering from severe food shortages.

According to recent estimates by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), 83% of the population of Tigray is food insecure and dependent on a shrinking food supply, often made up of cereals, to survive.

He added that the recent assessment of the nutritional situation in Ethiopia showed that "13% of Tigray children under five years of age, plus half of pregnant women, are undernourished."

It continued "About three quarters of Tigray's population uses severe coping strategies, such as reducing quota sizes and the number of meals, to make supplies longer after relief assistance has ceased."

The United Nations confirmed that the Tigray area also suffers from severe fuel shortages, and no fuel supplies have been permitted since August 2, with the exception of two World Food Programme trucks. The United Nations agency stated that food convoys had not been able to reach the northern Ethiopia region since mid-December and assistance had previously been intermittent.

Ethiopia has for some 15 months been a bloody war between the government of Abu Ahmed and the forces of the Tigray Liberation Front, which has killed and displaced thousands, thwarted the food distribution efforts of the United Nations and doubled hunger in various parts of the country.