The number of people suffering from extreme malnutrition in Tigray, a two-year war-torn region in northern Ethiopia, has risen alarmingly recently and the situation threatens to worsen further, the UN has warned.

In a report released on Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that some 8.8 million people are in need of food aid in northern Ethiopia, not even counting the millions of additional citizens affected by the drought in the south and southeast. its areas.

An agreement signed in November 2022 by the federal government and Tigray rebels ended two years of war, allowing humanitarian aid to slowly begin to arrive, but the region has seen a “large increase in cases” of patients with complications from extreme malnutrition.

In April 2023, compared to the corresponding month in 2022, “hospital admissions” due to “extreme malnutrition” increased “by 196% in Tigray,” OCHA said, noting however that this number may “partly explain from improving access to health facilities”.

Across the country, OCHA recorded a 15% increase in patient admissions due to “extreme malnutrition” from January to April compared to the same period in 2022.

In Tigray in particular, the UN agency fears a worsening of “food insecurity for the most vulnerable groups of the population” after the decision to stop “food distributions” due to the “diversion” of humanitarian aid.

The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) and USAID, the U.S. agency for international development, suspended aid distribution to Africa’s second-most populous country in June, complaining that much of the food was being “diverted,” or misappropriated. , does not reach those who need them.

“The temporary suspension of food aid” in Tigray is having a “negative impact on the already high rates of malnutrition”, OCHA finds.

The approximately six million inhabitants of Tigray have been experiencing food shortages for over two years. Last month, residents of the area spoke to AFP about the difficulty they face in feeding their families, explaining that they barely manage to secure one meal every 24 to 48 hours.

During the armed conflict in the region, UN investigators had accused the federal government of Ethiopia of deliberately imposing starvation on the inhabitants of the region, of having proceeded with a blockade. Non-governmental organizations were referring to famine conditions.

Addis Ababa had denied this, accusing the rebel leadership in Tigray of demanding food aid for its war effort.

A temporary cessation of hostilities from March to August 2022 allowed some goods to reach the region before violence escalated again. The guns finally fell silent in November.

Some 20 million people, or 16 percent of Ethiopia’s 120 million citizens, depend on food aid, OCHA estimated in May.