UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A high-level committee that focuses on rapid responses to humanitarian crises estimates that some 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are in famine conditions. 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. According to a U.N. official, a note from the meeting said millions of other people in Tigray urgently need food to avoid famine. Ethiopia’s government has been at war with Tigray’s leaders since November, and Eritrea, a longtime Tigray enemy, teamed up with Ethiopia in the conflict. The U.N. estimates that since the war began, an estimated 2 million people had been displaced amid reports of killings and rape.
