Fighting resumes in Ethiopia's Tigray region

Fighting has resumed in Ethiopia's Tigray region, preventing international humanitarian relief from reaching civilians caught up in fighting between Tigrayan rebels and Ethiopian government allied with troops from neighboring  Eritrea.

Sporic shelling could be heard north of town of Agula approximately 40 kilometres north of regional capital Mekele.

Ethiopian military blocked ro north to food aid convoys for UN World Food Programme, including Doctors Without Borders, and World Vision, citing safety concerns.

Meanwhile, he of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in his first public comments on war in country's Tigray region, sharply criticized Ethiopia's actions, saying he believed it was genocide.

A researcher working with Mekele University to document some of war crimes being committed, who was blocked along with his team from Emergency Response Research Team, said: " Ethiopian soldiers and Eritrean soldiers don't have a religion. y are doing very b things here in Tigray."

Ethiopia's government said it was "deeply dismayed" by deaths of civilians, blaming former Tigray leers and claiming normality was returning in region of some six million people. It has denied widespre profiling and targeting of Tigrayans.