UN aid arrives in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
UNITED NATIONS, May 28 (NNN-Xinhua) — In the past week, 300 trucks carrying food and other supplies arrived in northern Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, bringing the total to 875 trucks since April, UN humanitarians said.
They have long said 500 trucks are needed weekly.
The trucks traveled neighboring Afar’s Semera-Abala road to Tigray’s capital of Mekelle, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. Additionally, five tankers with fuel also arrived in Tigray last week.
The office said that the 875 trucks carried more than 32,800 tons of aid, including 25,220 tons of food aid and 3,250 tons of nutrition supplies. The supplies then were dispatched to more than 55 priority districts in the region.
OCHA said fuel carried in tankers is off-loaded in Tigray for vehicles in the regional humanitarian operations, with about 200,000 liters needed each week. Some 644,000 liters have been delivered since April.
Until April, convoys into the war zone were interrupted for more than three months. However, the world body and its partners continued responding to humanitarian needs across Tigray, Afar, and Amhara as best they could, OCHA said.
Needs remain high in the neighboring Afar and Amhara, humanitarians said.
In Afar, there has been large-scale looting and destruction of health facilities and other infrastructure. Efforts to scale up assistance continue in the region. Nearly 880,000 people have received food assistance since late February. Aid workers are also opening malnutrition treatment centers.
In Amhara, south of Tigray, the United Nations and humanitarian partners aided more than 1 million people in the latest round of food distribution that began in mid-March. During the past week, more than 37,000 internally displaced persons and returnees received emergency shelter and non-food items in North Wello, North Gondar, Wag Hamra and South Wello zones.
OCHA said the United Nations and humanitarian partners are also working to respond to the severe drought affecting more than 8 million people in southern areas of Ethiopia. — NNN-XINHUA