Nearly 200 young children have died of starvation in hospitals across Ethiopia’s Tigray region as malnutrition soars one year after a brutal conflict broke out, according to data collected by local doctors and researchers.
The data from 14 hospitals offers a rare look at the scale of suffering in Tigray, which is grappling with a communications blackout and what the United Nations describes as a de facto aid blockade, which means that most essential medical supplies are no longer available.
Yet the toll is hardly comprehensive, given that most health facilities are not functional and Tigrayan health workers have only been able to reach roughly half of the region’s districts, said Dr Hagos Godefay, head of the health bureau in Tigray’s pre-war government.