The United Nations said Tuesday it is releasing $100 million in aid for seven countries to help them avoid famine because of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.

Ethiopia, where fighting has broken out between the central government and the northern Tigray region, will receive one fifth of this money.

The other recipients will be Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

“No one should view a slide into famine as an inevitable side effect of this pandemic,” said Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

“If it happens, it is because the world has allowed it to happen. Famine can be prevented. But we have to act in time to make a difference,” Lowcock said in a statement.