UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that famine is imminent in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and the country’s north and there is a risk that hundreds of thousands of people or more will die. Mark Lowcock says the economy has been destroyed along with businesses, crops and farms and there are no banking or telecommunications services. He says we are hearing of starvation-related deaths already. Lowcock urged the international community to step up including with money. Political tensions between Ethiopia’s president and Tigray’s leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government exploded into war last November. No one knows how many thousands of civilians or combatants died. In the disastrous famine of 1984-85, about 2 million Africans died, about half in Ethiopia.
