Famine in northern Ethiopia (2020–present)

Beginning with the onset of the Tigray War in November 2020, acute food shortages leading to death and starvation became widespread in northern Ethiopia, and the Tigray, Afar and Amhara Regions in particular. As of August 2022, there are 13 million people facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 150,000–200,000 had died of starvation by March 2022. In the Tigray Region alone, 89% of people are in need of food aid, with those facing severe hunger reaching up to 47%. In a report published in June 2021, over 350,000 people were already experiencing catastrophic famine conditions (IPC Phase 5). It is the worst famine to happen in East Africa since 2011–2012.

The main reasons for the famine are the Tigray War, which caused mass displacement and loss of harvests, in addition to then-ongoing locust infestations in the region. As reported by The Economist, the federal Ethiopian government was "deliberately holding back food in an effort to starve" the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF); a claim disputed by the Ethiopian government in late January. On 10 February 2021, Abera Tola, head of Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), described displaced people "reach[ing] camps in Tigrayan towns [being] 'emaciated'" and that "their skin [was] really on their bones." He estimated that "eighty percent" of Tigray was unreachable by humanitarian assistance. In early February 2021, Muferiat Kamil, Ethiopian Minister of Peace, agreed with World Food Programme representatives to allow increased food distribution in Tigray Region. While the situation improved after the March 2022 truce and allowed for humanitarian distribution of food, the lack of rain in the spring of 2022 compounded the already existing food insecurity. The resurgence of fighting after the ceasefire collapsed in August 2022 exacerbated the situation even more; by October, between 400 and 900 a day were dying of starvation.