Tigray still without aid eight days after deal to end Ethiopia’s blockade (The Guardian)
Posted: 10 Nov 2022, 21:57
Tigray still without aid eight days after deal to end Ethiopia’s blockade
Humanitarian groups hope to deliver huge influx of food and medicine to millions facing famine and disease
Humanitarian organisations have yet to reach millions in Tigray who face famine and disease, eight days after Ethiopian authorities vowed to lift their blockade to allow the free passage of food, medicine, fuel and other desperately needed aid.
The World Health Organization has called for a massive influx of food and medicines to the war-torn northern region, saying aid had not yet been allowed despite humanitarian access being a key element of the peace deal signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) eight days ago.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the ceasefire agreement reached in South Africa, but said that after a week “nothing is moving in terms of food aid or medicines”.
He added: “Many people are dying from treatable diseases. Many people are dying from starvation … I was expecting that food and medicine would just flow immediately. That’s not happening.”
In the deal, the federal government agreed to end the blockade on Tigray imposed at the beginning of the war two years ago, while the TPLF, the political movement in power in the region, said it would disarm its forces.
The blockade has cut almost all communications and stopped banking and other commercial services. Healthcare for Tigray’s 6 million inhabitants has been reduced to minimal levels as facilities shut and medication ran short. Food, fuel and electricity have been scarce.
Within hours of the news of the deal last week, United Nations staff had begun talking to Ethiopian officials about reopening roads closed for months. Logistics specialists said they were able to begin sending convoys loaded with much-needed supplies “almost immediately”.
Continue reading https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... a-blockade
Humanitarian groups hope to deliver huge influx of food and medicine to millions facing famine and disease
Humanitarian organisations have yet to reach millions in Tigray who face famine and disease, eight days after Ethiopian authorities vowed to lift their blockade to allow the free passage of food, medicine, fuel and other desperately needed aid.
The World Health Organization has called for a massive influx of food and medicines to the war-torn northern region, saying aid had not yet been allowed despite humanitarian access being a key element of the peace deal signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) eight days ago.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the ceasefire agreement reached in South Africa, but said that after a week “nothing is moving in terms of food aid or medicines”.
He added: “Many people are dying from treatable diseases. Many people are dying from starvation … I was expecting that food and medicine would just flow immediately. That’s not happening.”
In the deal, the federal government agreed to end the blockade on Tigray imposed at the beginning of the war two years ago, while the TPLF, the political movement in power in the region, said it would disarm its forces.
The blockade has cut almost all communications and stopped banking and other commercial services. Healthcare for Tigray’s 6 million inhabitants has been reduced to minimal levels as facilities shut and medication ran short. Food, fuel and electricity have been scarce.
Within hours of the news of the deal last week, United Nations staff had begun talking to Ethiopian officials about reopening roads closed for months. Logistics specialists said they were able to begin sending convoys loaded with much-needed supplies “almost immediately”.
Continue reading https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... a-blockade
