UN Official: Key Committee Says 350,000 in Famine In Tigray

A HIGH-LEVEL U.N.-led committee that focuses on rapid responses to humanitarian crises estimates that some 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are facing famine conditions, a U.N. official said late Wednesday.

The estimate was presented at a meeting on Monday of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, comprising 18 U.N. and non-U.N. organizations that is chaired by U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also attended, the official said.

A note from the meeting said millions of other people in Tigray urgently need food to avoid famine, said the official, who has not authorized to speak publicly.

Last Friday, Lowcock warned that famine is imminent in Tigray and in the country’s north, saying there is a risk that hundreds of thousands of people or more will die.

No one knows how many thousands of civilians or combatants have been killed since months of political tensions between Ethiopian President Abiy