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The United Nations says the shortage has become “very critical” in Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, as its population of 6 million remains isolated and its capital under threat of attack by Ethiopian forces seeking to arrest regional leaders. .
Fuel and cash are running out, more than 1 million people are estimated to have been displaced and food for nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees will disappear within a week, according to a new report released overnight. And more than 600,000 people who depend on monthly food rations have not received them this month.
Travel blockades are so severe that even within Tigray’s capital Mekele, the UN World Food Program cannot gain access to transport food from its warehouses there.
Communications and travel links with the Tigray region have been cut since the deadly conflict broke out on November 4, and now Human Rights Watch is warning that “actions that deliberately impede aid supplies” violate international humanitarian law.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s 72-hour ultimatum for the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to surrender ended on Wednesday night. Your government has said that Mekele is surrounded.
The UN has reported people fleeing the city. The Abiy government had warned them to “have no mercy” if residents did not stay away from TPLF leaders who are accused of hiding among the population.
But with the communications cut off, it is unclear how many people in Mekele received the warnings. The alarmed international community calls for an immediate reduction, dialogue and humanitarian access.
Abiy on Wednesday, however, rejected international “interference”.
(AP)
