More than 100,000 children in Tigray, Ethiopia, could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months, a tenfold jump over average annual levels, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado, speaking after returning from Tigray, said that one in two pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in the northern region were acutely malnourished, leaving them and their babies prone to sickness.

Fighting began between the Ethiopian central government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) last November. The TPLF recaptured most of its home region in June and July, but most aid was blocked.

Children, women and other civilians bear the scars of the conflict and trauma endured, Mercado said.

It has been two weeks since a convoy of the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) was able to enter the Tigray regional capital Mekelle, spokesman Tomson Phiri said.

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