Ethiopia in Crisis: Starvation Grips the Nation as PM Abiy Ahmed Prioritizes War and Vanity Projects

Ethiopia faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as reports of severe malnutrition in the Bugna Zone, North Wollo, Amhara Region, underscore the government’s failure to address the suffering of its people.
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa confirmed the urgency of the situation, announcing efforts to deliver food and nutrition aid to the most affected areas.

Yet, while millions teeter on the brink of starvation, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration continues to pour resources into war and lavish vanity projects.
Critics have lambasted the regime’s saber-rattling against Eritrea and the alleged genocidal war against the Amhara people, marked by drone strikes reportedly financed by the UAE.
At the same time, Abiy is constructing a billion-dollar palace complex - dubbed larger than Windsor Castle, the Kremlin, and the Forbidden City combined - drawing outrage over its extravagance in a time of famine.
This stark contradiction between the dire reality of Ethiopia’s starving population and the government’s focus on conflict and grandiose distractions reveals the true priorities of Abiy’s administration.
Observers warn that his focus on consolidating power through militarism and white elephant projects risks further destabilizing the nation, while millions face preventable hunger.
Calls for accountability and urgent humanitarian intervention are growing as the regime’s actions increasingly appear detached from the plight of the Ethiopian people. For many, the question remains: How long can this government continue to ignore its citizens’ suffering while waging war and pursuing self-serving ambitions?
Related stories

The “Powder Keg” Script: Crisis Group’s Eritrea Bias
International Crisis Group’s 18 February 2026 briefing advertises itself as conflict prevention. In reality, it performs something closer to narrative management: it repackages Ethiopia’s Red Sea ambition as a “grievance” to be accommodated, while keeping Eritrea boxed into the f

Ethiopia: Abiy's War Script and the Media’s False Balance on Eritrea
The lazy framing is already being warmed up: “tensions are rising,” “neighbours trade claims,” “both sides must de-escalate.” It sounds responsible. It reads balanced. And it quietly deletes the one fact that matters: one side has spent years normalising war talk as policy. If y

Erdogan in Addis: sovereignty first as Abiy beats sea-access drum
Abiy Ahmed tried to stage the usual Addis photo-op when Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived. But the camera caught something different: a stiff, guarded prime minister sitting beside a visitor who didn’t look like he came for flattery. What played out at the joint app

Eritrea Dismisses Ethiopia’s Letter, Cites Two-Year Hostile Campaign
Eritrea’s Ministry of Information has dismissed Ethiopia’s latest diplomatic message as “patently false and fabricated,” rejecting what it described as a familiar two-year pattern of hostile campaigns — and pointedly refusing to be pulled into public escalation. In a short press

