The AP has led the way on Tigray coverage for almost a year, and its latest story on severe hunger continues to break important ground. For months, the U.N. and other groups have warned of impending famine in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region. Now the AP reports exclusively, citing internal documents and witness accounts, on the first starvation deaths since the Ethiopian government imposed a blockade in June.
Getting any information at all out of Tigray right now is a coup — the government has blocked Internet access and humanitarian groups are terrified to talk to the press for fear of being thrown out of the region. Despite these conditions, Nairobi-based reporter Cara Anna managed to paint a picture of the desperate shortage of food within Tigray.
Anna obtained internal documents showing that an aid group reported starvation deaths in every single district it covered, the most extensive account yet of the blockade’s impact. She also obtained a list of items aid workers are no longer allowed to bring into Tigray because of the government’s fears that they will end up in the hands of the Tigrayan fighters — multivitamins, can openers, even personal medicines.
Letmedhin Eyasu holds her 1-year-old son, Zewila Gebru, who is suffering from malnutrition at a health center in Agbe, Ethiopia, June 7, 2021.
Mulugeta Ayene / UNICEF via AP
UNICEF nutrition specialist Joseph Senesie, left, screens a child for malnutrition in Adikeh, in the Wajirat district of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, July 19, 2021.
Christine Nesbitt / UNICEF via AP
Amanuel Berhanu is weighed after being identified as severely malnourished, in the Wajirat district of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, July 19, 2021.
Zerihun Sewunet / UNICEF via AP
A severely malnourished child is seen at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, in a September 2021 photo provided anonymously.
UGC via AP
A newborn baby weighing just 800 grams (1.7 lbs.) is treated in a clinic before dying, along with his malnourished mother, shortly after he was born in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, in a Sept. 14, 2021 photo provided anonymously.
UGC via AP
At the Hitsats camp in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Aug. 21, 2021, Letemariam, a mother of six, sits with her infant, born after escaping fighting in her hometown in western Tigray. Letemariam was seven months pregnant when her village was attacked and she and her five children fled on foot with only the clothes on their backs.
Claire Nevill / World Food Programme via AP
The empty warehouse of the World Food Programme lies damaged in the Hitsats refugee camp in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Aug. 21, 2021.
Claire Nevill / WFP via AP
A woman holds a child during a screening by UNICEF and partners for malnutrition in pregnant and lactating women, in Gijet in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, July 20, 2021.
Christine Nesbitt / UNICEF via AP
Ababa, 25, comforts her baby, Wegahta, 6 months, who was identified as severely malnourished, in Gijet in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, July 20, 2021.
Christine Nesbitt / UNICEF via AP
The story clearly exposed the government’s assertion of no hunger in Tigray as a lie, the latest example of AP holding the government accountable for what is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe.
Any story on famine relies strongly on visuals. With no access to the region, Nairobi-based chief photographer Ben Curtis dedicated himself to securing the necessary permissions and added information to use exclusive handout photos from sources in Tigray, including a former hospital director. The photos are horrifying, showing children on the brink of starvation, including one child who died.
AP’s story drew widespread attention and praise. Anna was interviewed by the BBC World Service and NPR, and the piece was tweeted, including by Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, and by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Other news organizations have followed AP’s lead on the story.