Lately, 88-year-old Nireayo Wubet spends many of his days burying friends and family members. As he grieves, he worries about whether there will be anyone left to offer him a decent burial when the time comes, as severe hunger ravages a large swath of his village in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

“We have little humanitarian support,” laments the octogenarian whose frail appearance is mirrored by many others in his village of Hitsats, near the Eritrean border. “It’s not conflicts that will ultimately kill us, but famine,” he says.