Ethiopian prime minister dismisses reports of famine deaths
ABC News
Almost 400 have died of starvation in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions in recent months.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dismissed reports saying people were dying of hunger in his country, but allowed that people "may have died" due to malnutrition-associated illnesses.
"There are no people dying due to hunger in Ethiopia," Ahmed told lawmakers in Parliament on Tuesday.
Authorities in Tigray are warning that the northern Ethiopian region is on the brink of a famine as nearly 400 people have died of hunger in Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray and Amhara regions in recent months.
About 91% of Tigray's population has been "exposed to the risk of starvation and death," Getachew K. Reda, of the Interim Regional Administration of Tigray, announced in a recent statement.
"Tigray is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe the likes of which have not been seen since the infamous 1984-85 famine that claimed the lives of millions of people across Ethiopia," the administration said. "Indeed, at the moment, millions of Tigrayans are simply awaiting their gut-wrenching fate: death."
