Conflict & Famine Ravage Ethiopia - How You Can Help

What’s the story?

• Ethiopia has been in a state of conflict for more than a year and the fighting has left the war-torn country with over 5.2 million people in need of emergency food aid, more than 400,000 of whom are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. The crisis has resulted in the highest number of people facing famine-like conditions anywhere in the world for more than a decade.
• The conflict began in November 2020 amid a dispute between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a group that had previously dominated Ethiopian politics through one-party rule and defied the federal government by holding regional elections in the country’s northern region. 
• The Ethiopian military, with support from the Eritrean military and Amhara militias, launched an offensive to put down the TPLF and seized the capital of the Tigray region in November 2020. In the months that followed, the TPLF and its allied militias retook much of the Tigray region, including the capital in June 2021, and are now advancing toward the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
• Throughout the conflict there have been thousands of people killed and numerous accusations of atrocities and crimes against humanity ranging from executions of civilians to a blockade of humanitarian aid, including emergency food supplies. 
• On Tuesday, the U.S. announced the removal of Ethiopia from a trade program due to the government’s “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” effective January 1, 2022. The trade program under the African Growth and Opportunity Act allows sub-Saharan African nations to have duty-free access to the U.S. if they demonstrate progress toward political pluralism and eliminate barriers to American trade and investment.

How you can help

• The U.S. branch of the United Nations World Food Program is accepting donations to provide lifesaving food supplies and other aid to the region.
• Save the Children has established the Ethiopia Children’s Relief Fund to accept donations to help families and children find food and access life-saving healthcare.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: USAID via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)