Muluwork Ambaw, a 26-year-old woman from Ethiopia, claims to have gone the last 16 years of her life without eating or drinking anything.

Most people can hardly last a few hours without munching on something, but Muluwork Ambaw insists that she shunned food forever one day when she was only 10 years old, after her appetite vanished out of the blue. Apart from her complete lack of sustenance, Ambaw reportedly has a normal life, she is in good health and has plenty of energy to perform her daily tasks, which include cooking for others and running various errands. The young woman has undergone several medical tests in Ethiopia, but none could really confirm if she spoke the truth, although doctors at a hospital in Addis Ababa did confirm that there was no evidence of any food in her intestines at the time of the examination.

Photo: YouTube/@drewbinsky

Muluwork Ambaw’s case recently went viral after she was visited by Drew Binsky who heard her story while visiting Ethiopia and decided to meet her in person. His video quickly went viral, but this isn’t the first time Ambaw makes news headlines. She first attracted attention in 2016, when rumors of a girl who could survive without food or water started spreading in her home country. Before long, journalists and TV reporters were converging on her small village to document her bizarre case.

The 26-year-old woman says that she can still remember the last time food passed her lips. Her last meal was red lentils stew with injera, a typical Ethiopian dish, after which her appetite simply vanished. At first, she lied to her family that she had eaten, but she eventually had to tell them the truth.

“I used to live with my family, and they asked me to eat breakfast and go to school,” Ambaw recalled. “I said I had eaten but I was pretending. I had lost my appetite for water or for any food.”

The young Ethiopian woman claims that because she hasn’t consumed any food or water in 16 years, she also hasn’t had to use that toilet during that time. Apparently, the only time she needs to use the bathroom is when she bathes.

In 2021, Ethiopian news blog Borkena announced that the country’s Prime Minister had learned of Ambaw’s claims and had arranged to have her tested by doctors in Dubai. In her recent interview with Drew Binsky, the 26-year-old claimed that doctors found nothing wrong with her, although she didn’t mention if they kept her under observation to see if she could really survive without food and water.

“I have nothing to say. It’s God’s work and I just accept that,” Muluwork Ambaw said.

 

We’ve heard people claim to survive without solid food for decades, but Muluwork Ambaw is one of the few who claim not to need liquids either, which is really hard to believe. According to Guinness Records, the longest anyone has gone without food and water was 18 days, and that was a man who police arrested and then forgot about. This woman claims to have gone without any water for over 16 years.