Over 200 kids under five died of starvation in Tigray hospitals: Survey
Nearly 200 children under five years of age have died of severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia's Tigray region, according to data collected from hospitals only.
Local doctors and researchers said information they had collected from 14 hospitals in Tigray showed "more than 186 deaths" had been registered in children younger than five over the last year.
Doctor Hagos Godefay, head of the health bureau in Tigray, told AFP on Tuesday, "We collected this information from hospitals only." He said that the findings had been collected from hospitals as well as through household surveys by doctors and university researchers in Tigray.
Only 14 percent of surveyed households reported having enough access to food, down from 60 percent, Hagos said.
"For those areas that are not accessible, you can only imagine how many children are dying because of starvation," he said.
"They are living in remote areas, there is no water... there is no food, no communication, no health facility," Hagos added.
He said according to data, some 29 percent of children were acutely malnourished, up from nine percent before the war.
For severe acute malnutrition, the figure was 7.1 percent, up from 1.3 percent before the war, Hagas said.
"So I am telling you if we go to the remote areas, it will double for sure," said the doctor.
The survey findings covered the four months from late June.
Tigray has been the scene of conflict since November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops there to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in response to attacks on army camps.
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