Ethiopia is on course to suffer a famine last seen in the 1980s, when mass starvation killed about a million people.
The UN’s human rights chief Mark Lowcock has implored warring parties in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face one of the greatest tragedies of this century.
“People need to wake up,” he said. “There is now a risk of a loss of life running into the hundreds of thousands or worse.
“Businesses have been destroyed. The economy has been destroyed. Crops have been destroyed. Farms have been destroyed. There are no banking services any more, there are no telecommunications services any more.”
Mr Lowcock said food aid was being blocked in particular by Eritrean forces also operating in Tigray, saying starvation was being used as a weapon of war.
“We are hearing of starvation-related deaths already,” he said. “The access (for aid workers) is not there because of what men with guns and bombs are doing and what their political masters are telling them to do.”
The cry for action comes after the World Food Programme said 90pc of Tigray’s six million people needed emergency food aid.
In the past week, the UK, the US, Canada, France and Germany have presented a united diplomatic front pushing for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and full access for aid groups to avert the impending disaster. However, despite accounts of appalling atrocities against civilians, both the UN Security Council and the African Union have yet to take a firm stance on Tigray.
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