Saturday, August 28, 2021

The Tigray Crisis Doomed to Worsen?

  Estimates indicate that at least 100 trucks of aid supplies are needed every day to meet the needs of the Tigrayan people in Ethiopia caught up in conflict.

"Since the end of June, we managed to get just about 320 trucks — and this, of course, has devastating consequences for the aid operations in the region,"   Saviano Abreu, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. 

"Our obligation is to assist everyone who needs assistance, no matter who they are or where they are," Abreu pointed out. "We don't support any party to the conflict. Our obligation is to the people that need help.

Access inside Tigray is still minimal for humanitarian aid.

As a result, up to 900,000 people in Tigray face famine conditions in what the UN has called the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade.

Mohammed Hussein, Afar regional state emergency protection and food security chief, explained,  "We need food, shelter and medical supplies. We also need military support. We have a free and safe passage for humanitarian supplies and commercial activities."

The head of communication at the International Red Cross in Ethiopia, Zewdu Ayalew, described the living conditions of the displaced people as extremely difficult.  

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Ethiopia has spread beyond the northern Tigray region and "a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes." And that ethnic profiling is tearing apart the social fabric of Ethiopia.

Humanitarian situation worsens in Ethiopia′s Tigray region | Africa | DW | 27.08.2021

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