Ethiopia: UN forced to stop some humanitarian aid to Tigray as conflict escalates

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on Thursday, that some assistance programmes in Ethiopia had to be curtailed or closed due to intensifying and unpredictable conflict. Calling for attention to the blockade to the contested region, the global aid body asserted that even basic goods and services like fuel are also not allowed to enter the region. According to the data provided by OCHA, there are at least 14 fuel tankers in Samera, waiting for permissions to Tigray at present. 

Not only fuel, but the UN body said that cash and other humanitarian supplies have also been denied entry to Tigray-which is controlled by Tigray Defence Forces (TDF). Roughly 100 trucks with succour are required by the conflict-hit region every day, as per official data. However, only 1% of the total population was able to access humanitarian supplies. 

“Between 7-13 October, only about 52,000 people reached with food or 1 per cent of the targeted population in Tigray, in which half of them received only one or two food items,” OCHA said in a situational report. The percentage of children identified with severe acute malnutrition in Tigray is rising on weekly basis and alarming at above two per cent," it added. 

Furthermore, humanitarian officials reminded all involved parties-Ethiopian government and rebel forces- that they are obligated under the UN mandate to protect civilians and infrastructure. On October 21, two airstrikes on Mekelle killed three children and injured ten other people. Just a day earlier, a separate aerial attack had inflicted severe wounds on several people. 

"Several UN and non-governmental organisations have reduced or shut down programs due to the depletion or severe shortages of fuel, cash and supplies," the humanitarian office said. 

Tigray-Ethiopia Conflict

Months after Nobel Peace Prize winner Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took the chair, he launched a "coordinated attack" against the rebel forces in the Northern Tigray region in November 2020. The Prime Minister made the call after the Afar leftist political front TPLF sieged a key Ethiopian military base at Sero by using tanks and machine guns. This had led to the ignition of a 10-months long prolonged war in the region.

Image: AP