The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had resumed aid by road to the war-ravaged Ethiopian region of Tigray on Saturday for the first time in six months.
It is the second convoy of international emergency supplies to reach Tigray since the government and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) agreed a conditional humanitarian truce last week.
The ICRC said it had sent in medical assistance, food and water treatment supplies for the stricken northernmost region of Ethiopia, which the UN says has been under a de facto blockade for months.
“Many people affected by the conflict in Tigray live in extremely challenging conditions, unable to access healthcare, sufficient food supplies, and basic goods and services,” Nicolas Von Arx, the head of the ICRC delegation in Ethiopia, said in a statement.
“In addition, a lack of medication and medical equipment has placed enormous strain on the region’s health-care system and medical staff.”
The UN’s World Food Programme said 13 trucks of food aid for people “on the edge of starvation” had arrived in the Tigrayan capital Mekele on Friday, followed by a fuel truck on Saturday.
It was the first food aid sent via the land route through the neighboring Afar region to reach Tigray since mid-December.
The UN says hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation in Tigray, where people have for months also faced fuel shortages and a lack of basic services such as electricity, telecommunications, internet, and banking.
Important step
Across northern Ethiopia, the 17-month conflict has driven more than two million people from their homes, according to the UN, and left more than nine million people in need of food aid.
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 on foot.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government on March 24 declared an indefinite humanitarian truce, with the TPLF the following day agreeing to a “cessation of hostilities” if aid arrived.
The ICRC said Saturday’s convoy was the first by road since September, although it had conducted almost 40 cargo flights into Tigray since January, delivering life-saving drugs and medical equipment.
“The ICRC welcomes the current ceasefire and the willingness of the parties to the conflict to facilitate passage of much-needed humanitarian aid into Tigray,” Von Arx said.
“It is vital that the assistance keeps reaching the region on a regular basis.”
The WFP also announced on Twitter the arrival in Mekele of a tanker loaded with 47,000 litres of fuel for humanitarian operations, but said it needed 200,000 litres a week.
The United States has accused Abiy’s government of preventing aid from reaching those in need, but the authorities have blamed the rebels for the obstruction.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday he welcomed the delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in Tigray and Afar.
“This is an important step toward implementing the cessation of hostilities,” he said, urging all parties “to sustain the delivery of life-saving assistance.”
