Whenever there is war in a country or region, food insecurity is sure to worsen. Millions of people are starving, and there appears to be no light towards the end of the tunnel. Last year, about 20 million extra individuals suffered food insecurity as a result of armed conflict, the COVID-19 epidemic, and meteorological extremes. Millions of people starving, and there seems to be no easy solution. Worryingly, acute food insecurity has worsened since 2017. The forecast for this year is once again bleak. In 2018, extreme weather and economic troubles put more than 113 million people in desperate need of assistance.

As per the Global Network Against Food Crises' annual report, conflict and instability should be blamed for the grave condition experienced by 74 million people, or two-thirds of those affected, in 2018. It is a deplorable state of affairs. The scenario in Tigray is because of the violence there is quite concerning. The majority of Tigray's 5.5 million residents require food assistance. Fighting erupted in the province in November between government soldiers and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the area's previous ruling party (TPLF). Other than helping the Ethiopian government, troops from neighboring Eritrea also entered the fight. Thousands of civilians were killed, and over 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes in the mountainous terrain because of the violence. According to a study by United Nations agencies and relief groups, and over 350,000 people in Ethiopia's Tigray are suffering badly from famine, with millions more in danger, because of the hostilities which have been held responsible for the biggest catastrophic food crisis in a decade.

“There is famine currently in Tigray,” declared UN aid head Mark Lowcock on Thursday, following the release of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) study, which the IPC stressed has not been confirmed by the Ethiopian government.

Since a quarter-million Somalis died in 2011, the majority of people living in famine conditions has been greater in Somalia than anyplace else in the world. The full implications of the famine are difficult to assess since officials — and food supplies — have been unable to reach the most faraway regions of an area renowned for its rocky inaccessibility even during the best of times. On top of that, there are roadblocks. The UN World Food Programme announced on Thursday that it has reached 1.4 million people in Tigray, “roughly half of the amount we should be reaching,” due in part to armed groups obstructing the way.

The Ethiopian government denies that starvation is being implemented as an instrument of war.  According to Mitiku Kassa, an official with the National Disaster Risk Management Commission, the UN, and non-governmental organizations have “unrestricted access” to Tigray, and food aid worth around $135 million was already provided. The United States is committing more than $181 million to send food, water, and assistance to more than three million people in Ethiopia's Tigray area, where thousands have been slaughtered since the war started in November.

The IPC, a measure used by UN agencies, regional authorities, and relief organizations to evaluate food insecurity, issues the most severe alert, phase 5, which begins with a disaster warning and progresses to a proclamation of famine in a territory.

According to the IPC, more than 350,000 people in Tigray are in phase 5 of the disaster. This indicates that homes are suffering from famine conditions, and only around 20% of the population is afflicted, and fatalities and malnutrition haven't yet reached levels of famine.

As per IPC research, “this extreme emergency originates from the compounding effects of violence, including population displacements, mobility restrictions, reduced humanitarian access, loss of crop and livelihood assets, and dysfunctional or non-existent markets.” For famine to be proclaimed, at least 20% of the population must've been suffering from extreme food scarcity, with one out of every three children critically malnourished and two adults dying daily from hunger or malnutrition and illness.

“Although the world is full of misery, it is also full of triumphs over it.” Helen Keller's statements are accurate, and they need careful consideration.