Aid officials warn that 2 million people face starvation in Tigray

Drought, crop failures and continued insecurity following a brutal war have triggered a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia.

Local officials have warned that more than 2 million people are now facing the threat of starvation. The BBC has obtained exclusive coverage of some of the worst-hit areas in Tigray province and analyzed satellite imagery to fully reveal the emergency situation currently facing the region.

July is a critical period for food security as farmers need to take advantage of seasonal rains to grow crops.

Satellite images we have identified show that reservoirs and the farmland they irrigate have dried up due to insufficient rainfall last year. Seasonal rains are needed now to replenish reservoirs if farmers are to have any hope of a good harvest later this year.

The picture below is of the Koril Dam and Reservoir, located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the regional capital, Mekelle.

The first photo, taken in June 2023, clearly shows a small lake with an artificial barrier, a so-called micro-dam. Below the dam is fertile land irrigated by the reservoir.

Such systems already support more than 300 farmers in growing wheat, vegetables and sorghum (a cereal crop).

The image below shows the same area in June 2024, with reservoirs empty and fields dry.

Without adequate rainfall, irrigation systems cannot function and farmers cannot survive off the land.

“Even if there is no water in our dams, our land will not disappear,” said Demtsu Gebremedhin, who used to grow tomatoes, onions and sorghum.

“So we’re not giving up and we hope to get back into farming.”

Tigray’s population is estimated to be between six and seven million.

As of late 2022, the region was embroiled in a two-year-long, intense war pitting local Tigray forces against the federal government and its allies.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have died in the conflict or from hunger and lack of health care.

Dozens of displacement camps have been established to provide shelter and humanitarian support to the displaced.

Now that the war is over, some people have been able to return home, but most remain in refugee camps, relying on food aid deliveries because the lack of rain means they have no crops to harvest and eat.

One of the camps, set up by UN agencies near the town of Shire, about 280 kilometres (174 miles) west of the Korir Dam, is currently sheltering more than 30,000 people.

The blue tents seen in this satellite image are provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the white tents are provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Tibuktai Tekre takes care of her five children in the camp. Her husband was killed in the war.

“We had livestock. We used to harvest crops in the winter,” she told the BBC in May. “In short, we had the best lifestyle. Now we have nothing.”

In the camp, she does some cooking and craft work to earn money, but some of her children have to beg.

“I hope to at least get my land back. The food we grow on our land is better than food aid,” she said.

“If we can go back to our hometown, our children can work or go to school.

“So I’m hoping that this will be the best future for them after the miserable life we’ve had here.”

The BBC spoke to doctors at a hospital in the town of Ndabaguna, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the county, about their growing concerns.

“In recent months, we have been treating an increasing number of children,” said Dr. Gebrekristos Gidey, the hospital’s medical director.

He said a 20-year-old woman, Abeba Yeshalem, gave birth prematurely due to malnutrition.

At the hospital, Abeba told us: “My husband went away to study and left me alone. He couldn’t help me financially. I didn’t have enough food to feed myself and my children.”

The dozens of children being treated come not only from families in the camp but also from nearby towns.

“We don’t have enough resources to care for all the people who need help,” Dr. Gebrechristos said.

Dr. Gebrehiwet Gebregzabul, head of Tigray’s Disaster Risk Management Commission, said the region is facing the most critical time of the year, the “peak hunger period.”

Normally, food supplies would be short during this period, so crops had to be planted to be harvested in October.

“2.1 million people are at risk of starvation,” he told the BBC, “and a further 2.4 million are dependent on uncertain aid deliveries.”

Data obtained from the Ethiopian government’s meteorological agency shows the consequences of last year’s poor rainfall.

The northern region of Tigray and the neighboring Afar region are suffering from drought.

In southern Ethiopia, heavy rains caused flooding, destroying crops and livestock.

Rainfall was also below normal in much of Tigray in January and February this year, although conditions improved in some areas in March.

Professor Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, warned that famine was “coming quietly in the dark”. He said too little attention was being paid to the crisis.

“Famine is man-made, so those who created it like to hide the evidence and hide their role,” he said.

He said the current situation in Tigray mirrors the catastrophic famine of 1984, when up to a million people died of hunger.

“In 1984, the Ethiopian government wanted the world to believe that their revolution heralded a bright new era of prosperity, while foreign donors refused to believe warnings of starvation until they saw pictures of dying children on BBC News.”

Aid agencies have mapped the scale of the crisis facing Ethiopia based on a range of factors, including lack of rain, ongoing insecurity and lack of access to aid.

Parts of Tigray and the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions face an emergency, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net).

The federal government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, disputed the warnings of severe food shortages.

Shiferaf Teklemariam, chairman of Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission, told the BBC that according to official assessments, “there is no risk of famine and hunger in Tigray… (or) other parts of Ethiopia.”

He added that officials were doing “everything they can” to meet the challenges facing the country and would continue to prioritize “beneficiaries most in need.”

Relations between the Ethiopian government and aid agencies have been strained in recent years, with the United Nations alleging that food aid was blocked from reaching Tigray during the Tigray conflict.

In 2021, the federal government denied reports of a famine in Tigray and expelled seven senior UN staff members, accusing them of “interfering in the country’s internal affairs.”

Last June, the UN World Food Programme and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) suspended all food aid to Ethiopia, saying they had found evidence that government and military officials were stealing humanitarian supplies.

Deliveries did not resume until November.

There is also controversy within Ethiopia over the severity of the situation.

In February, Ethiopia’s ombudsman reported that nearly 400 people had died of hunger in the country, including in Tigray. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said: “No one has died of hunger in Ethiopia.”

Responding to these political tensions, Alex de Waal said aid agencies, “poorly funded and averse to controversy”, have been slow to respond to the current crisis.

A USAID spokesperson told the BBC they “continue to urge the Ethiopian government and other donors to increase funding to meet the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable populations”.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said currently available funding was “insufficient to meet the broad humanitarian needs” but that available resources were being directed to the “most urgent, life-saving responses”.

Additional reporting by Daniele Palumbo and Kumar Malhotra