'Children don't have the energy to feel hungry'

FAMINE CRISIS HITS ETHIOPIA

- Hanna Geissler

CHILDREN are so sick they can no longer feel hunger pangs as a catastrophic crisis grips Ethiopia, a charity founder has warned.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, of Mary's Meals, recently visited the war-ravaged region of Tigray to witness the devastation.

Calling for immediate action to prevent widespread starvation, he said: "People are already dying of hunger and everything we're hear ing on the ground points to a wellfounded fear of much worse to come if the world doesn't respond.

"We've heard accounts of children who no longer feel the pain from hunger pangs not because they have eaten, but because they don't have the energy to feel pain any more.

"It's hard not to make comparisons between how the world was so moved to act nearly 40 years ago when Ethiopia was gripped by the infamous famine of the 80s and the situation today that is virtually being ignored.

"We need to make sure that the terrible outcome Tigray is heading for doesn't happen, but it will if we don't act now."