"We often go to bed hungry": in Ethiopia's Afar region, the ravages of hunger

Farah waits silently in the corridor of the pediatric ward in Abala, in northwest Ethiopia. Sitting on a small bench, her 8-month-old baby on her lap, the 32-year-old woman's face is peaceful this morning. "He's almost healed today, because he's eating properly ," she says, replacing the yellow scarf that's fallen from her forehead with one hand. "When I first came here two months ago, he wasn't well at all. Because of his diarrhea, he had become very weak. I was scared." Farah, a single mother of two other children, has never been able to feed her baby the way she wanted. "I didn't have any milk ," she sighs. "I myself eat very little: a little bread in the morning and sometimes a piece in the evening. I can't afford proper meals." The little money we earn comes from my eldest son who sells toothbrush sticks on the street.

Like Farah, every day, dozens of mothers arrive at Abala hospital with their malnourished children. Between January and February 2025, 1,768 new cases of severe acute malnutrition were detected, a 44.3% increase compared to the same period in 2024, according to the NGO Première Urgence Internationale, which is leading treatment in the department. In this arid region, the prevalence of this pathology is 15%, exceeding the critical threshold set by the World Health Organization. In its latest bulletin published in January 2025, the American Famine Warning and Prevention Network classified the northwest of the region, where Abala is located, as an "emergency situation." This is the last stage before famine. In total, in Ethiopia, more than 10 million people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, the World Food Program warned in April.

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