Africa Business Radio

The World Food Program warns Ethiopia is on the edge of a humanitarian disaster as escalating fighting in the north is preventing the delivery of needed food from reaching millions of people in battle-scarred Tigray province. World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says his agency's humanitarian operation in northern Ethiopia is about to grind to a halt. He says intense fighting in the region is blocking the passage of fuel and food. Phiri says stocks of nutritionally fortified food for the treatment of malnourished children and women are now exhausted, and the last of WFP's cereals, pulses and oil will be distributed next week. The World Food Program says 9.4 million people in northern Ethiopia now require humanitarian food aid, an increase of 2.7 million from just four months ago.