Nearly 400 people have died in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions because of lack of food caused by drought, the government’s Federal Ombudsman Institute reported on Tuesday.
The comments go against what federal authorities said before, that they didn’t have confirmation of anyone dying from not having enough food in any part of the country.
People had died in different areas, but there wasn’t a complete record of all the deaths.
The institute found that millions of people were affected in the two areas and tens of thousands had already been forced to leave their homes.
The boss of the institute, Endale Haile, told the media that the deaths happened in the last six months.
In December, leaders in the war-torn Tigray region said a severe food shortage, like the one Ethiopia had in the 1980s, could happen soon if we don’t act fast.
The government said there is not going to be a famine in Ethiopia, but they recognized that a lack of rain is causing problems in some parts of the country.
The Ombudsman Institute is telling government agencies to not waste time on words and instead focus on helping people.
The government said last week that they found over six million people who need urgent help because of a drought in the next three months.
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Ethiopian government acknowledges fatalities from famine
