Somali National News Agency
So
Ar
Search
  • Home
  • Local News
    Local NewsShow More
    Federal Government of Somalia’s Weekly Briefing
    August 8, 2025
    Somalia Sends Statement of Condolence and Solidarity to the Republic of Ghana
    August 8, 2025
    Minister of Health Highlights Major Hospital Rehabilitation and Construction Efforts
    August 8, 2025
    NISA Special Forces Eliminate Senior Al-Shabaab Commanders in Bariire Operation
    August 8, 2025
    Somalia Honors 31 Military Officers Awarded Scholarships from China
    August 8, 2025
  • World News
    World NewsShow More
    Israel kills aid worker in Gaza amid rising starvation deaths, US envoy meets with hostages’ families
    August 3, 2025
    Ghana Donates 40 Metric Tonnes of Cocoa to Palestine in Act of Solidarity
    August 2, 2025
    Seven people in critical condition after car ramming at LA nightclub
    July 20, 2025
    Tourist boat capsizes in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, killing 37
    July 20, 2025
    Israel kills more than 50 in Gaza as UN warns of ‘catastrophic hunger’
    July 19, 2025
  • Articles
    ArticlesShow More
    Somali and Allied Forces Deal Major Blow to Al-Shabaab in Coordinated Offensive
    August 6, 2025
    Somalia’s Financial War Against Al-Shabaab: Key Achievements and Strategic Milestones (2022–2025)
    August 4, 2025
    H.E. Abdisalam Abdi Ali Dhaay: Driving Somalia’s Diplomatic Renewal and International Partnerships
    August 4, 2025
    National ID Enforcement in Somalia: A Strategic Plan to boost the Country’s Economy
    July 31, 2025
    The Return of the White Star: Somali Airlines Resumes Operations After Three Decades
    July 29, 2025
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    Somalia Unveils the Blueprint for a Modern and Sustainable Mogadishu
    December 21, 2024
    Djibouti Launches $57.4 Million Youth Entrepreneurship Project to Combat Climate Change
    November 25, 2024
    FM meets Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia
    October 28, 2024
    President Hassan Sheikh Inaugurates New LPG Storage Center in Mogadishu
    May 12, 2024
    Collaboration of ICT transformation for digital Infrastructure
    October 24, 2023
  • Sports
    SportsShow More
    Mogadishu Stadium to Host Star-Studded Match Featuring Somali Legends and International Football Icons
    May 27, 2025
    Arsenal held at Brighton while Man City bounce-back continues
    January 5, 2025
    Galmudug wins the Inter-State Football Tournament
    January 29, 2024
    Somalia set for two int’l friendlies ahead of WC qualifier clashes against Algeria and Uganda
    October 10, 2023
    Chicago woman, 104, skydives from plane, aiming for record as the world’s oldest skydiver
    October 3, 2023
  • Tenders
    TendersShow More
Reading: Ethiopia’s Tigray region is now peaceful, but extreme hunger afflicts its children
Share
Font ResizerAa
Somali National News AgencySomali National News Agency
  • SOMALI
  • ARABIC
Search
  • Home
  • Local News
  • World News
  • Articles
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tenders
Follow US
©2023 || All rights reserved SONNA
Somali National News Agency > Blog > World News > Ethiopia’s Tigray region is now peaceful, but extreme hunger afflicts its children
World News

Ethiopia’s Tigray region is now peaceful, but extreme hunger afflicts its children

By Khadar Aweys
Last updated: March 10, 2024
5 Min Read
Share

NEBAR HADNET, Ethiopia (AP) — The cruel realities of war and drought seem to have merged for Tinseu Hiluf, a widow living in the arid depths of Ethiopia’s Tigray region who is raising four children left behind by her sister’s recent death in childbirth.

A two-year war between federal troops and regional forces killed one of her own sons, the rest of whom are already adults. And now, a lack of food stemming from the region’s drought has left the youngest of the children she is raising malnourished.

She tries to forage seeds among the scarce greenery of the desert’s yellow, rocky landscape. But she recently resorted to traveling to the nearby Finarwa health center in southeastern Tigray to try to keep the 1-year-old baby alive.

“When hungry, we eat anything from the desert,” she said. “Otherwise, nothing.”

She joined several other mothers seeking help at the center in the remote administrative area of Nebar Hadnet. A mother of five complained that she had no breastmilk for her eight-month-old baby. Another with 1-year-old twins said she needed sachets of baby food to keep “my babies alive.”

Tigray is now peaceful but war’s effects linger, compounded by drought and a level of aid mismanagement that caused the U.N. and the U.S. to temporarily suspend deliveries last year.

Once-lush fields lie barren. Mothers, faces etched with worry, watch helplessly as their children weaken from malnutrition. Nearly 400 people died of starvation in Tigray and the neighboring Amhara region in the six months leading to January, the national ombudsman revealed in January, a rare admission of hunger-related deaths by a federal government.

Most of those deaths were recorded in Tigray, home to 5.5 million people.

Until the signing of a peace agreement in November 2022, the region was the scene of a deadly war between federal troops and forces loyal to the region’s now-ousted ruling party. But months after the end of the conflict, the U.N. and the U.S. halted food aid for Tigray because of a massive scheme by Ethiopian officials to steal humanitarian grain.

An inadequate growing season followed.

Persistent insecurity meant only 49% of Tigray’s farmland was planted during the main planting season last year, according to an assessment by U.N. agencies, NGOs and the regional authorities, and seen by the AP. Crop production in these areas was only 37% of the expected total because of drought. In some areas the proportion was as low as 2%, that assessment said.

The poor harvest prompted Tigray’s authorities to warn of an “unfolding famine” that could match the famine of 1984-5, which killed hundreds of thousands of people across northern Ethiopia, unless the aid response was scaled up. Food deliveries to Tigray in the second half of last year, but only a small fraction of needy people in Tigray are receiving food aid, humanitarian workers say.

Finarwa, a farming community of about 13,000 people, is among the worst-hit places.

The town’s health center still has war-damaged equipment and some of its rooms appear abandoned. Tadesse Mehari, the officer in charge of the clinic, said the lack of food at homes in the community has forced children to flee and beg in nearby towns.

“Nothing here to eat. So, for the sake of getting food and to save their lives, they are displaced anywhere, far from here,” he said. “So, in this area, a lot of people are suffering. They are starved. They are dying due to the absence of food.”

Some local leaders, feeling helpless, have been turning their own people away

Hayale Gebrekedian, a Nebar Hadnet district leader for five years, listened to the pleas of villagers who streamed into his office one recent afternoon. A widow named Serawit Wolde with 10 children was in tears as she recounted that five of them were falling ill from hunger.

“Please, any help,” she told Hayale.

Hayale told the woman he had nothing to give. “There simply isn’t any (food),” he said.

Hayale later told the AP, “This place used to be a source of hope, even for those displaced by the war. We had enough for everyone, but now we can’t even feed ourselves.”

Source: AP

Share This Article
Facebook Whatsapp Whatsapp Email Copy Link Print

MORE NEWS

Official Reopening of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives

CultureEducationLocal News
November 23, 2024

Kenya’s small farmers find respite in avocados amid changing climate

NAIROBI(SONNA) As crop diseases and pests rise in Kenya amid a rapidly changing climate that…

March 11, 2023

Federal Government of Somalia’s Weekly Briefing

Federal Government of Somalia’s Weekly Briefing Mogadishu, Friday, 8th August, 2025 1- President Hassan Sheikh…

August 8, 2025

Nimcaan Hilaac appointed to lead Waberi National Band

Mogadishu (SONNA)-Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E. Mohamed…

March 3, 2020

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Ecuador presidential candidate Villavicencio assassinated

SONNA - Ecuador presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead Wednesday while leaving a campaign rally in the capital Quito.…

World News
August 10, 2023

Working crew tray to find 47 still missing in in China

ALXA LEAGUE, China (SONNA) — Work crews trying to find 47 people missing after a collapse at an open-pit mine…

World News
February 25, 2023

UN appeals funds for aid to save 30 million children suffering malnutrition

SONNA - The United Nations launched an appeal for funds to come to the aid of more than 30 million…

World News
January 14, 2023

Southwest elders meet on conflict resolution and reconciliation

Mogadishu (SONNA)- AMISOM Political Affairs Unit has concluded a training aimed to equip traditional elders with skills to mediate and…

NewsWorld News
November 28, 2020

Somali National News Agency established in 1964. It is one of the main pillars of the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism.

  • Home
  • Local News
  • World News
  • Articles
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tenders
  • SNTV
  • RADIO MOGADISHU
  • DALKA JOURNAL
  • TOURISM DEPARTMENT

Follow US: 

  • MoICT
  • VILLA SOMALIA
  • OPM SOMALIA

All rights reserved SONNA

©2023

Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?