“Living in crowded camps, children and families urgently need food, shelter and clean water…Immunizations have ground to a halt, health and water facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and essential supplies looted,” says UNICEF

The military conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray regional government, which began on November 4, has already claimed thousands of lives. International agencies have raised concerns over shortages of food and medicine.

Hundreds have reportedly died and the fighting has now spilled across the country’s national borders into neighboring countries.

Accusing Eritrea of participating in a “full-scale war” alongside the Ethiopian federal troops against the Tigray regional government, the latter fired rockets targeting the airport in Eritrea’s capital city on Saturday 

Soon after coming to power in 2018, prime minister Abiy Ahmed had opened up the political space by freeing political prisoners and allowing other political parties to operate freely. The war in Tigray may lead to a reversal of these gains

The fighting between the forces of the federal government and that of the Tigray regional government began on November 4. It has triggered fears of a full-blown civil war in Africa’s second most populous country