By CARA ANNA, Associated PressNAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations says Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region faces a “very critical malnutrition situation” as vast rural areas where many people fled during three months of fighting remain out of reach of aid. Alarm is growing over the fate of the Tigray region’s some 6 million people as fighting is reportedly as fierce as ever between Ethiopian and allied forces and those supporting the now-fugitive Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia's government. The Tigray conflict began at a vulnerable time, just before the harvest and after months of a regional locust outbreak. Ethiopia's government denies the presence of Eritrean soldiers, though the Tigray region's interim government has confirmed it and accused them of looting food aid, according to a recent Voice of America interview. The U.N. report describes a “dire” situation in which “COVID-19 services have stopped” in the Tigray region, displaced people in some cases are sleeping 30 to a single classroom and host communities are under “incredible strain.”

Source: Ethiopian News February 20, 2021 14:26 UTC