UN and Ethiopia sign deal for aid access to Tigray

In a breakthrough a month after a deadly conflict cut off Ethiopia’s Tigray region from the world, the United Nations on Wednesday said it and the Ethiopian government have signed a deal to allow “unimpeded” humanitarian access, at least for areas under federal government control after the prime minister’s declaration of victory over the weekend.

Confirming details of the deal at UN Headquarters in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that all aid distribution would be carried out "in compliance with the globally-agreed principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality."

This will allow the first food, medicines and other aid into the region of 6 million people that has seen rising hunger during the fighting between the federal and Tigray regional governments.

Each regards the other as illegal in a power struggle that has been months in the making.

For weeks, aid-laden trucks have been blocked at Tigray’s borders, and the UN and other humanitarian groups were increasingly anxious to reach Tigray as hunger grows and hospitals run out of basic supplies like gloves and body bags.

More than 1 million people in Tigray are now thought to be displaced, including over 45,000 who have fled into a remote area of neighboring Sudan.

Humanitarians have struggled to feed them as they set up a crisis response from scratch.

(Image credit: AP)