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The Consequences of Conflict on Acute Food Insecurity Situation in Ethiopia: A Review Study

Published in Frontiers (Volume 4, Issue 4)
Received: 14 November 2024     Accepted: 27 November 2024     Published: 25 December 2024
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Abstract

This review was focused on consequence conflict on the food security condition in Ethiopia. The food security over much of Ethiopia is destitute within, which assistance needs at their highest level 2016 during the ongoing meher-producing lean season (event of la Niña in Ethiopia). Subsequently, current food insecurity of Ethiopia cause mainly by conflict/insecurity, which, happen in northern Ethiopia and Benishangul Gumuz regional state of Ethiopia. The result of empirical review prosecuted that numerous individuals of food insecurity conditions are assembled in crisis and emergence classification of intense food insecurity. The seriousness of insecurity were most found in Tigray, Afar and Amhara locale of Ethiopia due to conflict. Subsequently, once conflict has broken out, outside help is fundamentally to food noncombatants during and after the viciousness and event of repetitive drought conditions. Therefore, this review recommends that government and non –governmental organization enhance their capacity to supply crisis help once food uncertainty/insecurity condition happened.

Published in Frontiers (Volume 4, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13
Page(s) 137-141
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Food Insecurity, Crisis, Impact, Response, Ethiopia

1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Food security over much of Ethiopia is destitute within, which assist needs at their highest levels since 2016 amid the progressing meher-producing incline season . The impacts of armed conflict on food security can be further exacerbated by climate events that have been increasing in frequency and coverage, such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters . The reasons for the watched increment of the final little a long time are different. Much of the later increment in food insecurity would be quality to the more noteworthy number of clashes, regularly exacerbated by climate –related stuns. Indeed in a few serene setting, food security has weakened since of financial lull undermining get to nourishment for destitute . For this reason, conflict highly contributes to raised crisis needs and population relocation in Ethiopia.
Once the armed conflict happen the certain areas, it creates a lots consequences on the behalf of the residents that live in that confined area. According to , conflict diminishes cultivating population through coordinate assaults, dread, oppression, constrained enrollment, malnutrition’s, sickness and passing. As cultivating population escape, decrease, or halt cultivating out of fear, generation falls, spreading food avoids over regions that are more extensive. Prolonged conflicts and their consequences further prevent cultivation and marketing, and destroy land, waterworks, markets, infrastructure, and communities.
The high help needs in Ethiopia are driven by struggle, the destitute large-scale economy and continuous drought in peaceful regions . Of the individuals over northern Ethiopia in require of help, more than 80% (7.8 million) of them were behind fight lines . In Tigray, the situation remains the most disjointed and threatening . Subsequently, the condition of Ethiopia should give life-saving help in conflict-affected Northern Ethiopia including Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions due alleged conflict.
1.2. The Objectives
The primary objective of this survey is to evaluate the impact of conflict on food security in the context of Ethiopia. This Survey particularly centered on:
1. Review on the effect of expanded conflict on food security.
2. Review on major humanitarian response made during conflict.
1.3. Methodology
The investigate plan of this review considered both qualitative and quantative examination of the current circumstance of food security in Ethiopia caused by conflict. Additionally, the supplementary information for this study was gathered, analyzed, and evaluated from a variety of sources including articles, books, and reports from government and non-governmental organizations.
2. Discussions
2.1. The Impact of Conflict on Food Security
When communities in rural Africa are influenced by savage conflict, the food security of their citizens is at the great risk . The question of linkage between food security and struggle widely and uncertainly debated for many years . Unloading the joins between food insecurity and strife makes a difference distinguish section focuses for managing with both; it is basic to breaking the horrendous circle, particularly in rural areas that tend to be poorer and more subordinate on agriculture for both food and livelihoods . A vicious circle of struggle and food insecurity makes mitigation of destitution in rural areas of the foremost vulnerable nations particularly unmanageable . Food insecurity is not the only factor that contributes to intense conflict, but may be portion of a pattern whereby groups of individuals are it for the ethnic or political connection, their territorial organization together or their devout practices are treated in an unexpected way than others 3]. Subsequently, individuals may encounter both food insecurity and conflict traps. Systematically, it is amazingly challenging to unravel such a complex web of causalities .
Conflict involves enormous and multifaceted costs, counting coordinate human enduring and disastrous socioeconomic disruptions, which can essentially block economic and social advance . The most obvious way in which armed conflict causes starvation is by intentionally using food as a weapon . Conflict has solid and unambiguous unfavorable impacts on food security and nutrition. It is the major driver of food insecurity and ailing health, both acute and persistent . Conflict can decrease the sum of food available; disturb people’s access to food, and constrain families’ access to food preparation facilities and health care, and increment vulnerability around fulfilling future needs for food and sustenance . Therefore, there are causal and substantial connections between food security and severe conflict, ranging from individual to global levels.
Food deficiencies and starvation deaths happens where attack purposely devastates food supplies and profitable capacities and starves contradicting population into accommodation. Later attack strategies incorporate prevention or redirection of food help from planning recipients to the military and their supporters; devastation of food stocks, livestock’s and other resources in food –producing region, blockage of food supplies, financial authorize and giver arrangements that specifically withhold food help .
Causal impacts of conflict-food security nexus shift over conflict zones, but common highlights are disturbance of nourishment generation and food frameworks, looting of crops and livestock’s, misfortune of resources and earnings, thus straightforwardly and in a roundabout way food access . Clashes are exceptionally distinctive from each other and indeed the same conflict can have exceedingly variable impacts over distinctive individuals, over time or over space . Rural food insecurity ordinarily increment since nearby food generation cannot rise to a level adequate to supplant market food sources also bolster populaces swollen by asylums from urban and other provincial regions .
Currently, conflict/insecurity was the central driver of intense food insecurity in Ethiopia where battling spilled over from Tigray into neighboring Amhara and Afar districts, compelling helpful help . Concurring to the report of , Millions of individuals in Tigray require pressing compassionate help over most of the region, with at slightest Emergency results progressing. It is conceivable that results are more awful within the regions of most elevated concern. In any case, data is adequate to affirm or deny this claim at this time. In southern and western Tigray, at begin of the harvest is moderating utilization shortages, and crisis results are progressing.
Rural cropping patterns and units of food production definitely alter national markets are gotten to be blocked off . In zones of Amhara bordering Tigray, the struggle has essentially disturbed progressing livelihoods and economic exercises. The plundering of family grain stores, livestock’s and family resources has come about in a misfortune of livelihood capital whereas, agrarian exercises were essentially disturbed, for those who are able are locks in within the early harvest, especially for barely and potatoes, utilization of this food . The elimination of animals causes extra costs for agriculturist is whom loss fertilizers as well as animal traction . Numerous displaced family units are likely depending on endowments from the community to access food. Much of northeastern Amhara is right now in crisis, with a few most exceedingly bad - influenced families in emergency .
Conflict moreover crushes manufacturing and market areas, destructs networks, and squares access to transitory labor opportunity . In areas of zones, two and four of Afar were cut-off from neighboring regions due to conflict. Given destitute households’ overwhelming market reliance but restricted capacity to sell animals either due to misfortunes from plundering or constrained market access and to buy food, numerous are confronting critical difficulty assembly their essential food needs. Hence, the food insecurity status of numerous individuals in Ethiopia are found inconvenience condition due to afore specified causalities that happen in Tigray, Amhara and Afar region.
The consequence of conflict in Ethiopia was not only shown its impact in aforementioned regions. The violence in Benishangul Gumuz Region (BGR) also proceeds to have a negative impact on the lives of influenced communities and obstruct the humanitarian operations within the region within Metekel, Kemashi and Assosa zones that affect the great deal of under five children, pregnant and lactating women, who require quick access to humanitarian assistance, including critical health and nutrition interventions.
Subsequently, conflict in Ethiopia is major means of food insecurity driver both acute and may be incessant condition which happen nearly extraordinary bargain of parts of Ethiopia inside diverse inspiration for the rise of this struggle. At last, these clashes do have destroying impact on food insecurity condition of either by plundering of their livelihoods or by blockage of humanitarian help to reach the conflict zones.
Source: - Adopted from FEWS report from February –May 2022
1: Minimal; 2: Stressed; 3: Crisis; 4: Emergency; 5: Famine

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Figure 1. The food insecurity levels associated with conflict and drought.
As shown in figure 1 above, major parts of Tigray region have faced the food insecurity level of famine and emergency. Besides that, the northern parts of Amhara region and the Afar region have also faced the food insecurity condition of stress and emergency condition. Therefore, conflict in Ethiopia especially in northern parts of Ethiopia have been shown in trouble condition that require a great concerns and strategies to reduced the associated consequence that are aggravated due to conflict/strife’s.
2.2. Response Made During Conflict
Food aid by donor countries aims to provide food security to the people who are not able to feed themselves . Once conflict has broken out, external help is essential to food non-combatants during and after the war. Agreement is developing that, the worldwide community contains a right or obligation to intervene and give humanitarian assistance to imperiled individuals, indeed over the objection of an autonomous state. But the challenge is to discover ways to help victims in circumstance where one or more parties to conflict is not open to external assistance where emergence are open-ended in time and where there's no dependable authority to accept control over operations or infrastructure so that helps suppliers can effectively or rapidly pull back. Planning the activities of inter-governmental, governmental and non-governmental organization was help providers display an extra challenge. Political or self –serving interests on the portion of donors and NGOs, which are not bounding by governmental legitimate commitments, include to the complexity. Lessons learned from drought, earthquake reaction could not continuous be exchanged to conflicts, where food is more likely to utilize as a weapon and less likely to be a successful government 13]. Many countries are have been claiming that the government of Ethiopia has using food as weapon in conflict what happen in northern Ethiopia.
The connection between accessibility of food help programs and presence of conflict is complex. Access to any food help program at village level diminished as nearness with armed groups expanded while, food assistance was possibly accessible for all families living in villages unaffected by armed groups . Food help is the ordinary instrument required to constrain the quick food insecurity impacts of conflict. Besides the clear humanitarian outcome in its own right, it can help provide a better context for resolving other issues of social discontent. Done right, food aid can also assist in better transition to longer-term agricultural productivity growth that will be essential to finding more stable solutions to root causes of conflict in many rural areas. In any case, indeed food help can worsen conflict beneath a few circumstances, and utilized poorly on a repeating premise, it can compound a few of the root causes of social discontent. In agriculture-based conflict nations, the center has to be rural productivity growth and food security .
The estimated population in need of humanitarian assistance during conflict and post conflict in 1997 was 350,000 in Ethiopia . However, this number reach 12 million individual for Ethiopia as a whole which, humanitarian help disseminated by World Food Program and joint emergency operation program with two round foods assistance from April to August in 2021. However, Assistance dissemination is inconsistent, with families frequently waiting a critical amount of time between disseminations, up to twelve weeks in especially in Tigray region in seeking food aids. Based on recounted reports and data from key sources, humanitarian food help dissemination for in areas of Afar region was restricted, with small to no help delivery in zone 2 and 4 since at slightest may due to the .
Hence, State delicacy and powerless institutions, yielding complex and determined humanitarian crises, compound the disturbances from food insecurity, natural catastrophes and forced relocation.
3. Conclusions and Recommendations
Food insecurity found in an indicated range at a particular point in time and of a seriousness, that undermines lives or livelihoods, or both, notwithstanding of the causes, setting or length . Ethiopia right now is confronting with the condition of extended crisis, which infers characterized by repetitive natural catastrophe (drought), conflict, longevity of crises and breakdown of livelihoods and inadequate institutional capacity to respond the emergencies. There are condition to classify once district as protracted crises. Among these are longevity of crises, humanitarian help stream to province and the country’s financial and food security status. In this manner, the condition of Ethiopia at time reflects the over three say characteristics of crises.
The food security status of Ethiopia appeared by acute food security which cause by grow up struggle with appearance of ethnicity, resource completion and territorial claims on land in spite of the fact that there is perseverance chronic food security. More obviously, in Ethiopia, the aspects of autonomy of conflict, which are either internal or external conflict, are explained in different parts of Ethiopia regions. Therefore, many people in Ethiopia, which are internally displaced are found in critical food crisis and emergency condition of food security.
To summarize this review studies have come to with recommendations as follows:
1. Resolving the root cause of conflict by bargaining in the front of table rather than involving in armed conflict of those involving parties for the issue of citizen.
2. The government and stakeholders should strength the capacity for emergency response identified including food, water supply, shelter and sexual and gender based violence support by Providing and activating prompt action and scale-up reaction instruments particularly arrangement of food, water, nutrition help and livelihoods security programs.
3. The government ought to make broad arrangement for complex crises instead of ad-hoc evaluation for circumstances that exist in long term and are uneven over the time and space.
Abbreviations

FEWS

Famine Early Warning Systems

JEOP

Joint Emergency Operation Program

NGO

Non-governmental Organization

OCHA

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

WFP

World Food Program

WHO

World Health Organization

FAO

Organization for food and agriculture

Author Contributions
Getaneh Assefa: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing
Chirotaw Tsegaw: Writing – review & editing
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
References
[1] Bora, Saswati; Ceccacci, Iride; Delgado, Christopher; Townsend, Robert. 2011. Food Security and Conflict. © World Bank, Washington.
[2] Brück, T., & d'Errico, M. (2019). Reprint of: Food security and violent conflict: Introduction to the special issue. World Development, 119, 145-149.
[3] Cohen, M. J., & Pinstrup-Andersen, P. (1999). Food security and conflict. Social Research, 375-416.
[4] FEWS (2021) Famine early warning systems networks, Ethiopia foods security outlook update.
[5] Koppenberg, Maximilian, Ashok K. Mishra, and Stefan Hirsch (2023). "Food Aid and Violent Conflict: A Review of Literature.
[6] Martin-Shields, C. P., & Stojetz, W. (2019). Food security and conflict: Empirical challenges and future opportunities for research and policy making on food security and conflict. World Development, 119, 150-164.
[7] Organization for food and agriculture (2016). peace conflict and food security, technical note. Retrieved
[8] Shemyakina, O. (2022). War, conflict, and food insecurity. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 14(1), 313-332.
[9] Simmons, Emmy. 2013. Harvesting Peace: Food Security, Conflict, and Cooperation. Environmental Change & Security Program Report Vol. 14, Issue 3. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Washington DC.
[10] Tranchant, J. P., Gelli, A., Bliznashka, L., Diallo, A. S., Sacko, M., Assima, A.,... & Masset, E. (2019). The impact of food assistance on food insecure populations during conflict: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Mali. World Development, 119, 185-202.
[11] United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2021) Ethiopia – Tigray Region Humanitarian Update Situation Report, 2 September 2021.
[12] Verwimp, P. (2012). Food security, violent conflict and human development: causes and consequences. United Nations Development Programme Working Paper, 1-13.
[13] Walker, p., (1994) “linking relief and development: the perspective of the international federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies IDS bulletin 25: 4.
[14] WHO (2020), the state of food security and nutrition in the world 2020: transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets (Vol. 2020). Food & Agriculture Org.
[15] WFP (2021) Food security report due to conflict Retrieved
[16] WFP (2022) Food security report due to conflict.
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    Assefa, G., Tsegaw, C. (2024). The Consequences of Conflict on Acute Food Insecurity Situation in Ethiopia: A Review Study. Frontiers, 4(4), 137-141. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13

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    Assefa, G.; Tsegaw, C. The Consequences of Conflict on Acute Food Insecurity Situation in Ethiopia: A Review Study. Frontiers. 2024, 4(4), 137-141. doi: 10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13

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    AMA Style

    Assefa G, Tsegaw C. The Consequences of Conflict on Acute Food Insecurity Situation in Ethiopia: A Review Study. Frontiers. 2024;4(4):137-141. doi: 10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13,
      author = {Getaneh Assefa and Chirotaw Tsegaw},
      title = {The Consequences of Conflict on Acute Food Insecurity Situation in Ethiopia: A Review Study
    },
      journal = {Frontiers},
      volume = {4},
      number = {4},
      pages = {137-141},
      doi = {10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.frontiers.20240404.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.frontiers.20240404.13},
      abstract = {This review was focused on consequence conflict on the food security condition in Ethiopia. The food security over much of Ethiopia is destitute within, which assistance needs at their highest level 2016 during the ongoing meher-producing lean season (event of la Niña in Ethiopia). Subsequently, current food insecurity of Ethiopia cause mainly by conflict/insecurity, which, happen in northern Ethiopia and Benishangul Gumuz regional state of Ethiopia. The result of empirical review prosecuted that numerous individuals of food insecurity conditions are assembled in crisis and emergence classification of intense food insecurity. The seriousness of insecurity were most found in Tigray, Afar and Amhara locale of Ethiopia due to conflict. Subsequently, once conflict has broken out, outside help is fundamentally to food noncombatants during and after the viciousness and event of repetitive drought conditions. Therefore, this review recommends that government and non –governmental organization enhance their capacity to supply crisis help once food uncertainty/insecurity condition happened.
    },
     year = {2024}
    }
    

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    AB  - This review was focused on consequence conflict on the food security condition in Ethiopia. The food security over much of Ethiopia is destitute within, which assistance needs at their highest level 2016 during the ongoing meher-producing lean season (event of la Niña in Ethiopia). Subsequently, current food insecurity of Ethiopia cause mainly by conflict/insecurity, which, happen in northern Ethiopia and Benishangul Gumuz regional state of Ethiopia. The result of empirical review prosecuted that numerous individuals of food insecurity conditions are assembled in crisis and emergence classification of intense food insecurity. The seriousness of insecurity were most found in Tigray, Afar and Amhara locale of Ethiopia due to conflict. Subsequently, once conflict has broken out, outside help is fundamentally to food noncombatants during and after the viciousness and event of repetitive drought conditions. Therefore, this review recommends that government and non –governmental organization enhance their capacity to supply crisis help once food uncertainty/insecurity condition happened.
    
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