Fighting hinders UN aid to Ethiopia
2022.11.04 14:18
Fighting hinders UN aid to Ethiopia
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – The head of the United Nations’ humanitarian office (OCHA) for Ethiopia said on Friday that despite the truce between the combatants, the organization hopes to resume aid deliveries into Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region “in days.” However, some remote areas are still off-limits.
“Permanent cessation of hostilities” was reached on Wednesday between Ethiopia and the party in charge of the region, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). That followed a war that lasted two years and resulted in the deaths of thousands, the displacement of millions, and the extreme hunger of half of the 5.5 million Tigrayans.
Since a previous ceasefire was broken in August, the United Nations claims that it has been effectively prevented from providing aid. Blocking aid has repeatedly been denied by the federal government.
According to Michel Saad, the head of the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Ethiopia, U.N. agencies have been talking to federal and Tigrayan authorities since the end of October about resuming aid convoys into Tigray. These conversations have intensified since the truce.
In a telephone interview, Saad told Reuters, “So far we are receiving feedback and good assurances, but we are still waiting for the final go-ahead.”
He stated, “We are making progress, albeit small steps in the right direction.” I anticipate it will take days. Saad stated that once they received the go-ahead, they would need 24-48 hours to get aid moving. U.N. agencies had been gathering supplies.
A spokesperson for the Tigray authorities and a spokesperson for the Ethiopian government, Legesse Tulu, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The federal government’s communication service said in a statement on Oct. 24 that it was working with humanitarian organizations “to continue providing humanitarian aid” in urban areas where it had just taken control.
Saad stated that the United Nations resumed on Wednesday the distribution of stored food in the capital of Tigray, Mekelle, and that it had proposed to the authorities the establishment of an air corridor that would allow aid to be flown directly into Mekelle and Shire.
He also said that it has started checking the safety of supply routes that U.N. agencies have been unable to use for more than a year. Staff are looking for communication channels, unexploded ordinance, and whether bridges can handle trucks.
OCHA is looking into ways to get to Tigray from the Wag Hemra and North Gondar Debub Wollo zones in northern Amhara, among other places. It is also considering routes through the Afar region and through Wolqait, a region contested by Tigray and Amhara.
Saad stated, “The feedback is that we can start operations, but the security situation is unclear when it comes to moving further north” in Tigray.
Humanitarian organizations assert that they are unaware of the full scope of the requirements because a significant portion of Tigray has been inaccessible since August.
OCHA reported in an update on Tuesday that there are insufficient supplies to treat more than 25,500 severely malnourished children in Tigray.
Saad stated, “The needs are enormous.”
