[ad_1]
Ethiopia and the United Nations have agreed to channel humanitarian access to the northern Tigray region.
Federal troops have been fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and have captured the regional capital, Mekelle. A month of war is believed to have killed thousands of fighters and civilians in the region.
The agreement “seeks to allow unimpeded, sustained and safe access for humanitarian personnel and services in the areas under federal government control in Tigray and the border areas of the Amhara and Afar regions,” the Xinhua news agency quoted to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as it said in a statement on Wednesday.
An assessment and response mission to the east is already underway in the Afar border areas to reach internally displaced persons.
“We, together with our humanitarian partners in Ethiopia, are collaborating with the federal government and all parties to the conflict to ensure that humanitarian action in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions is strictly needs-based,” said Stephane Dujarric. , spokesman for the UN secretary. -General Antonio Guterres.
The agreement aims to help people without distinction of any kind other than the urgency of their needs, Dujarric said at a regular news conference.
The global organization and humanitarian partners have been seeking access to affected areas for weeks.
More than 800,000 people already need urgent assistance in Tigray, including some 96,000 Eritrean refugees and nearly 600,000 people dependent on food aid, humanitarians said.
About 46,000 people fled to Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency reported earlier in the week.
The pact announced by UN officials will allow aid in the government-controlled areas of Tigray.
The Ethiopian conflict has forced more than 45,000 refugees to flee to Sudan, displaced many more within Tigray and exacerbated suffering in a region where 600,000 people were already dependent on food aid even before hostilities broke out on 4 April. November.
Four Ethiopian employees of two foreign aid agencies died in a camp for Eritrean refugees in Tigray last month, a humanitarian and diplomatic source said.
Additionally, food is said to be running out for 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray who have fled repression in their own country, and doctors in Mekelle are falling short on painkillers, gloves and body bags, the International Committee on the Red Cross.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory after the fall of Mekelle on Saturday, but since then there has been little verifiable information from the highland city of 500,000 people.
The TPLF leaders fled into the hills, from where they say they continue to fight.
Abiy, who hails from the larger Oromo and Amharic ethics groups, calls out criminal Tigrayan leaders who oppose national unity and plan attacks in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.
Federal police blamed the TPLF, without evidence, for a small explosion in the capital on Wednesday that slightly injured an officer. There was no immediate response from the TPLF.
“Wars are not like taps that are turned on and then turned off. This will be a very long process,” Horn of Africa expert Rashid Abdi told an online forum.
(with contributions from agencies)
