Conflict and households’ acute food insecurity: evidences from the ongoing war in Tigrai-Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

The paper examines the effect of war on food insecurity in Tigrai using data from 3245 households. The calorie intake approach and the Integrated Food Insecurity Phase Classification (IPC) were applied to measure the level of food insecurity and classify the phases. The logistic regression model was applied to identify the factors affecting food insecurity in Tigrai. The empirical result revealed that 77.38% of the households are food insecure with a calorie deficiency gap of 33.68 and 69.21% of them are classified in crisis phase and above. The war has caused the level of food insecurity and share of crisis phase and above to upsurge by 153.8 and 49.7%, respectively. It is also shown that conflict, price of commonly consumable cereals, age of the head, family size, support (aid), and access to electricity and financial services are affecting the level of food insecurity in the region. To cope with the war-induced shortage of food, households reduced the quality and quantity of food they consumed, sold off livestock and assets, used their savings, requested support from family, NGOs, and the government, ate inedible green leaves, migration, and begging.