Over 100,000 children in Tigray could die of hunger: UNICEF

WUKRO, Ethiopia, July 30 (Reuters) - The United Nations children’s agency said on Friday that more than 100,000 children in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray could suffer life-threatening malnutrition in the next 12 months, a 10-fold increase to normal numbers.

UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said that one-in-two pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Tigray were acutely malnourished. “Our worst fears about the health and well-being of children... are being confirmed,” she told a briefing in Geneva.

Aid agencies say they are about to run out of the formula used to treat 4,000 severely malnourished children every month. At least three children have died in Wukro hospital since February, nurse Tsehaynesh Gebrehiwot said.