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Which Wars Lead to Hunger (and Which Do Not)?

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PETER WHITE, BRANDON IVES, PAUL HUTH, AND DAVID BACKER, "WHICH WARS LEAD TO HUNGER (AND WHICH DO NOT)?," POLITICAL VIOLENCE AT A GLANCE, JUNE 3, 2021.

Famine is increasingly likely in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, which has been embroiled in armed conflict between the regional government and the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments since November 2020. Alongside reports of widespread killings of civilians, a systematic campaign of sexual violence by Eritrean forces, a growing refugee crisis, and fears of the spread of a broader conflict, recent surveys in the area of the conflict have found “emergency” levels of malnutrition among both children and pregnant women. Another report suggests that there have been approximately 50-100 excess deaths per day since February 2021 in Tigray due to the conflict, with a growing risk that the malnutrition crisis could escalate to outright famine. The Tigray crisis raises the prospect of a recurrence of the devastating famine that swept through Ethiopia from 1983-1985, killing as many as 1 million people—the majority in Tigray.


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