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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 21 april 2022
Report: Hunger kills hundreds of kids in Ethiopia’s Tigray

Associated Press people who need aid (in
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) Tigray).”
— At least 1,900 children An estimated 2,000 trucks
under 5 have died from of food must enter Tigray
malnutrition in Ethiopia’s every week to meet the re-
embattled Tigray region in gion’s needs, a U.N. official
the past year, according to said at a meeting in Nai-
a study conducted by re- robi, the Kenyan capital,
gional health officials and on Wednesday, accord-
seen by The Associated ing to the aid worker, who
Press. attended. That’s a sharp
The deaths were recorded increase from the previous
at health facilities across assessment of 600 a week.
Tigray between June last The aid worker also spoke
year and April 1. Western on the condition of ano-
Tigray, which is under the nymity for safety concerns.
control of forces from the Just 3% of the vegetable
neighboring Amhara re- seeds and 10% of the fer-
gion, was not included in tilizer required for the cur-
the survey. An Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of yellow split peas to be allocated to waiting families rent planting season have
A doctor involved in the after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of reached Tigray, accord-
study said the true number northern Ethiopia, on May 8, 2021. ing to U.N. figures, raising
of child deaths from malnu- Associated Press fears of a poor harvest that
trition is likely higher as most would deepen the region’s
families are unable to bring Tigray People’s Liberation who are severely malnour- aid, U.S. officials estimate. hunger crisis.
their children to health cen- Front, or TPLF, recaptured ished, according to U.N. Ethiopia’s federal govern- Some health officials in Ti-
ters because of transporta- most of the region as fed- figures. ment unilaterally declared gray say they simply don’t
tion challenges. Most hun- eral forces withdrew. Civil servants have not a surprise “humanitarian have enough supplies to
ger deaths go unrecorded, Banking services, phone been paid in months. Many truce” on March 24, an an- treat many patients they
he said. lines and road links are all have run out of cash to nouncement it said would encounter. Some who re-
“Because we cannot ac- down in the region, a situ- buy food and other goods allow aid to flow into Ti- cently spoke to AP said
cess most areas, we do not ation the United Nations because banking services gray. But nearly one month shortages are so dire that
know what is happening on has said amounts to a “de have been shut down. The later, only four convoys of some patients’ relatives
the community level,” said facto blockade.” children of families living in around 80 food trucks have must personally buy medi-
the doctor, who requested Ethiopian authorities insist urban areas are especially entered the region. cines from private pharma-
anonymity for fear of repri- there is no deliberate effort at risk of malnutrition, as “Literally nothing has cies at inflated prices and
sals. “These are simply the to target Tigrayan civilians. their parents don’t have changed,” said an aid bring them to the hospital
deaths we have managed They have urged Tigrayan farmland to grow food, Ti- worker who recently visited before their family mem-
to record in health facili- fighters to surrender. grayan health officials say. Tigray. “We are just seeing bers can be treated.
ties.” More than 90% of Tigray’s Around 700,000 people a handful of trucks; these Tens of thousands of people
Tigray has been cut off from 5.5 million people require in Tigray are in the grip of trucks are better than noth- have been killed in the war,
the rest of Ethiopia since humanitarian assistance, “famine-like conditions” ing but they are not go- according to estimates by
June when fighters from the including 115,000 children due to the obstruction of ing to feed the millions of international aid groups.q

Sweden sees foreign countries playing role in recent riots

after a Danish far-right legedly kidnapping Muslim also addressed by a cou-
provocateur announced children. ple of governments, in Iraq
plans to hold meetings in “There are many signs that and in Iran.”
Sweden. Rasmus Paludan they have been running After word of Paludan’s
has burned copies of the here as well, campaigning planned stunt reached
Quran at events in Den- and supporting this in vari- Iran and the United Arab
mark where he also bash- ous ways,” the minister said. Emirates, the governments
es Islam, and the news he The Foreign Ministry in in Tehran and Dubai sum-
wanted to do the same in Stockholm posted a Twit- moned Swedish diplomats
Sweden sparked anger. ter thread in February de- to protest.
Paludan, who holds dual voted to what it termed “a A total of 26 police officers
Danish-Swedish citizenship, disinformation campaign.” and 14 other individuals
“seems for some reason A Swedish agency estab- protesters or other people
to hate Sweden and try lished to counter misinfor- were injured in the riots,
to harm Sweden. I do not mation said the kidnap- and 20 police vehicles de-
Cars are engulfed by flames after protests broke out at understand why” Justice ping allegations could be stroyed or damaged, offi-
Rosengard in Malmo, Sweden, late Sunday, April 17, 2022. Minister Morgan Johansson traced to an Arabic-lan- cials have said.
Associated Press said. guage site whose creator The latest violence broke
In an interview with Swed- expressed support for the out Sunday night in Malmo,
By JAN M. OLSEN riots in several Swedish cit- ish newspaper Aftonbladet Islamic State group. Sweden’s third-largest city,
Associated Press ies last week, according to published Wednesday, Jo- “We see how the image of as an angry crowd of main-
COPENHAGEN, Denmark the country’s justice minis- hansson referred to online Sweden is set by some of ly young people set fire to
(AP) — Sweden’s govern- ter. claims that surfaced earlier these actors in the Middle tires, debris and garbage
ment suspects that actors Crowds threw rocks and this year about Swedish so- East,” Aftonbladet quoted cans in an neighborhood
from abroad incited violent burned cars and trash cans cial service agencies al- Johansson as saying. “It is known for high crime.q