In addition to preventing plowing, soldiers took other measures to destroy food, witnesses say. Eritrean soldiers are known for contaminating food silos, sometimes mixing grain with sand and mud
Eritrean soldiers first took the bread from the pregnant woman, hiding in the bushes. Then they kicked her out of the checkpoint when she was about to give birth.
She gave birth to the baby at home and walked for 10 days to take her to a clinic in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.
Just 20 days old, baby Tigsti had twisted legs and was barely alive - a sign of what the United Nations official called one of the worst conditions in the region in a decade.
"She survived because I held her close to my stomach and hid her during the grueling journey," says Abeba Gebru, a quiet woman from Getskimilesley. In his left hand he held a talisman.
In war-torn Tigray, more than 350 people are facing starvation, the United Nations and other humanitarian groups estimate. People are not only starving, they are dead. In agricultural areas in Tigray, farmers, workers and local officials confirmed that food has become a weapon of war.
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Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are blocking food aid, even stealing it. Soldiers are also accused of stopping farmers from harvesting or plowing, stealing seeds for planting, killing livestock and looting farm equipment.
More than 2 million of the 6 million inhabitants have already fled Tigray, unable to get their crops. Those who have stayed are unable to sow or work the fields for fear of their lives.
"If things don't change soon, mass starvation is inevitable," said one aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from armed groups. "This is a man-made disaster."
The full extent of the famine is difficult to determine because officials and food aid still cannot get into the most remote parts of a harsh region even in the best of weather. The United Nations World Food Program on Thursday said it had received aid for 1.4 million people in Tigray. "That was only half the number we should have reached," partly because armed groups are blocking the road.
Farmers' struggle
For every mother like Abeba who manages to escape, hundreds, perhaps thousands, are trapped behind war fronts or military roadblocks.
"Most malnourished children die there," says Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief medical director of Ayder Hospital in Mekele. "This is a tip of the iceberg."
The war in Tigray began in early November, just before the harvest season, as an attempt by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to disarm the region's rebel leaders.
On one side are guerrillas loyal to Tigray's ousted and now fugitive leaders. On the other side, there are Ethiopian government troops, allied troops from neighboring Eritrea and militias from the Amhara ethnic group. Caught in the middle are the civilians of Tigray.
The war has brought massacres, gang-rapes and expulsions of people from their homes, and the United States has warned that ethnic cleansing is taking place in western Tigray.. Now, in addition to the horrors of war, Tigray residents are facing another problem. : hunger.
The deputy leader of the Tigray region, Abebe Gebrehiwot, admitted that ethnic cleansing was taking place, as he added that the wars are blocking food aid, which the people of Tigray badly need. It added that the region's interim administration, appointed by Abiy, is desperately trying to prevent famine, including in areas where Eritrean forces continue to rule.
"There are some players in this war who don't want us to... leave the ground," says Gebrehiwot. "Many armies prevent us from planting the seeds."
Ethiopia's government has strongly denied reports that hunger is being used as a weapon of war. Mitiku Kassa, an official at the National Disaster Risk Management Commission, said on Wednesday that the United Nations and non-governmental organizations "have unrestricted access" to Tigray and that $135 million worth of food aid has already been distributed.
"We don't have any shortage of food", he declared. But this situation is not what was seen on the ground by the Associated Press.
Teklemariam Gebremichael and his neighbors say the Eritrean army does not allow farming. One says that when the army attacked his cattle, they shot him too.
He survived. Cows don't. With the lack of food, his wound is slowly healing.
"I call on the world to take immediate action to help Tigray because we can no longer live in our own land," he pleaded.
Fellow rancher Gebremariam Hadush and his five children say they were taking their chances anyway, racing against time as the wet season approaches.
"We have to work this land for the second or third time," he says. "But until now we couldn't work the land, because we didn't have peace. Now, all we can do is just scratch the surface."
Demand for bread
Famine is particularly sensitive for Ethiopia, where images of starving children with bare limbs and skin and open eyes in the 80s sparked a global outcry. Drought, conflict, and government denial played a role in the famine, which killed an estimated 1 million people.
The situation has now worried the world - even if it is not enough, says Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN. She called for the UN Security Council to hold a meeting on Tigray.
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"Hunger can already happen in certain areas... especially in the country that woke up the world to the plague of hunger," she says. "I ask those who refuse to address this issue publicly, don't African lives matter?"
In Hawzen, where heavy artillery shelling is often heard, teacher Gebremichael Welay says he still has memories of attacks that destroyed food warehouses when he was a child.
"(The Ethiopian army) bombed us then," he says. "They are doing it again".
Agriculture has not completely stopped in Tigray, but it has become a dangerous act of resistance. On the way to Abi Adi, a town about 100 kilometers west of Mekele, the PA observed several farmers plowing or taking their cattle to graze in the distant hills. Craters from recent fighting were visible and bombed out military trucks lay by the side of the road.
"If they (Eritrean soldiers) see us plowing, they beat us," says the 20-year-old shepherd from Melbe, southwest of Mekele. "We leave only when we are sure the army is not around."
In addition to preventing plowing, soldiers took other measures to destroy food, witnesses say. Eritrean soldiers are known to contaminate food silos, sometimes mixing grain with sand and mud, says an official with a government organization in Mekele. While the two sides of the army have looted the equipment of farmers and ranchers.
"All our farm tools, including plows, were looted and taken away in trucks," says Birhanu Tsegay, a 24-year-old farmer from Neksege town. "They didn't leave anything."
A PA team has reported on a honey processing factory in the town of Agula, destroyed by Eritrean soldiers. Worker Tekeste Gebrekidan received a smeared leaflet from the farmers' union, which once exported the region's precious honey, and noted that its leaders have disappeared, presumed dead or displaced.
"The demand for food in the villages is very high," says Tekeste, who works as a coordinator of the Relief Society in Tigray. The level of need for food, according to him, is "beyond our capacity".
Mothers' prayers
Sometimes food aid gets through despite all the challenges, but it is still scarce. In early May a large crowd gathered under the scorching sun in Agula to share food bought with US money.
The food they gave out that afternoon - 15 kilograms of wheat, half a kilogram of peas and a little cooking oil per person, to last them a month - was meant only for the most vulnerable. This included pregnant mothers and the elderly like 60-year-old Letebrhan Belay, who walked four hours to get there.
Her family had 10 members, she says. He had taken food for only five members. But he insisted that he was better supplied than others.
"There will be people starving," she says as she touches the small bag of food.
Some of the more fortunate, like nurse mother Abeba, pass many roadblocks to reach medical help in Abi Adi and Mekele, but they are few and far between. Four women and their babies were admitted to the makeshift ward for malnourished babies in Abi Adi.
At least two children brought to the center since February have not survived, says Birhanu Gebremedhin, health coordinator for Abi Adi district. He says many malnourished children in villages cannot make it.
"This malnutrition is caused by the conflict," he says. "They have stolen their food, their equipment and some have been killed. So they are not able to feed their children," he says.
Birhan Etsana, a 27-year-old mother from Dengelat, was holding out hope for the sole survivor of her triplets. The baby was admitted to the hospital with complications caused by malnutrition. Baby Mebrhit was 17 months old, but weighed only 5.2 kilograms. And this after a week in intensive care, she escaped the danger from the tube placed in the nostril.
"Even when I breastfed her, she couldn't drink anything because of the lack of food," says Birhan.
Another baby admitted to Ayder Hospital with severe acute malnutrition died, says head nurse Tkleab Gebremariam. The mother fled during the fighting, leaving the child with his helpless grandmother for seven days. They were reunited after 10 days, but arrived at the hospital too late.
While Mulu's mother had spent a lot of time hiding from the soldiers and looking for food to see her child. As the soldiers approached, she had to escape into the bush. Her baby suffered.
The child was unconscious when first admitted in April. He was severely malnourished and anemic, having lost half his body weight. Two weeks in intensive care saved his life. At almost two years old, he still weighed just 6.7 kilograms.
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"This baby is very lucky to be recovering after coming here," says Tkleab. "There are many others who did not have this opportunity."
Translated by: Gent Mehmeti
