In Tigray, food is often a weapon of war as famine looms

In war-torn Tigray, more than 350,000 people already face famine, according to the UN and other humanitarian groups. It is not just that people are starving; it is that many are being starved, The Associated Press found.

First the Eritrean soldiers stole the pregnant woman’s food as she hid in the bush. Then they turned her away from a checkpoint when she was on the verge of labor. So she had the baby at home and walked 12 days to get the famished child to a clinic in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. At 20 days old, baby Tigsti still had shriveled legs and a lifeless gaze — signs of what the United Nations’ top humanitarian official calls the world’s worst famine conditions in a decade. “She survived because I held her close to my womb and kept hiding during the exhausting journey,” said Abeba Gebru, 37, a quiet woman from Getskimilesley with an amulet usually worn for luck around her left wrist.