The number of people in need of humanitarian food assistance across northern Ethiopia has grown to an estimated 9.4 million due to ongoing conflict there, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has announced.
Of these people, more than 80% (7.8 million) are behind battle lines.
It is vital that food assistance can cross battle lines to reach families in need, WFP said in a statement on Friday.
Amhara region – the front lines of the conflict in Ethiopia – has seen the largest jump in numbers with 3.7 million people now in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
The nutrition situation across North Ethiopia is deteriorating with screening data from all three regions showing malnutrition rates between 16 percent-28 percent for children.
Even more alarmingly, up to 50 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Amhara and Tigray were also found to be malnourished.
To date WFP has reached more than 3.2 million people with emergency food and nutrition assistance across northern Ethiopia, including 875,000 vulnerable mothers and children with nutritionally fortified food in Tigray and Amhara.
Corridors into Tigray had been closed due to the recent Tigrayan offences on Afar and Amhara, as well as severe disruptions in clearances from the federal government.
Since mid-July, less than a third of the supplies required to meet estimated humanitarian food needs have entered the region.
Funding shortages have already forced ration cuts for some 710,000 refugees and 2.4 million food insecure people in the Somali region of the east African nation, according to WFP.
MG/as/APA