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| First aid dispatched to Tigray |
ADDIS ABABA, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first international aid convoy in three months arrived in Ethiopia’s war-stricken Tigray region, the UN said, one week after the government and Tigrayan rebels agreed to a conditional truce.
The arrival of aid in Tigray, where hundreds of thousands of people face starvation, could help shore up the shaky ceasefire between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Abiy’s government last week declared an indefinite humanitarian truce in the 17-month conflict, with the TPLF agreeing to a “cessation of hostilities” if aid arrives in Tigray.
“WFP-led convoys just arrived in Erepti (in the neighbouring Afar region) & will soon cross into Tigray, bringing in over 500 mt (tonnes) of urgently needed WFP/partner food & nutrition supplies for communities on edge of starvation,” the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Twitter.
The TPLF said the 20 aid trucks were now in territory under its control in Afar and on their way to Tigray’s capital Mekele.
“This is one good step in the right direction; the bottom line, though, isn’t about how many trucks are allowed but whether there is a system in place to ensure unfettered humanitarian access for the needy!” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter.
The development comes just days after both sides accused each other of blocking an aid convoy headed for Tigray, which has not seen any humanitarian supplies arrive by road since Dec 15.
Nearly 40 percent of Tigray’s six million inhabitants face “an extreme lack of food”, the UN said in January, with fuel shortages forcing aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies sometimes by foot.
Since mid-February, humanitarian operations in the northern region have been virtually halted due to local shortages of fuel, food and cash, according to the UN.
Tigray has also been subject to what the UN says is a de-facto blockade.
According to the UN, the war has displaced more than two million people, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine and left more than nine million in need of food aid.
The conflict erupted in November 2020 when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region’s former ruling party, saying the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
Thousands of people have died as fighting has dragged on, while accounts have emerged of massacres and mass rapes, with both sides accused of human rights violations. — NNN-AGENCIES