ADDIS ABABA, 03 July 2021, (TON): Members of the UN Security Council, in its first public meeting on the crisis, warned that as many as 33,000 children were severely malnourished.

Officials said that a further 1.8m people were on the brink of famine as a result of the eight-month conflict.

They also warned of further clashes despite the declaration of a ceasefire.

The Ethiopian government, which has been fighting regional forces in Tigray, declared a unilateral ceasefire.

However, rebels vowed to drive their enemies from the region and there have been reports of sporadic clashes as pressure builds internationally for all sides in the conflict to pull back.

The fighting between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and government forces has already left thousands of people dead and more than two million people have been displaced.

All sides in the conflict have been accused of carrying out mass killings and human rights violations.

According to the New York Times “several thousand captured Ethiopian soldiers were paraded through the streets of the Tigrayan regional capital Mekelle.”

On Friday, the UN's acting humanitarian aid chief told members of the Security Council at a meeting in New York that the situation in Tigray had deteriorated dramatically in recent weeks.