Ethiopian refugees from Tigray region wait to receive aid at the Um Rakuba refugee camp, the same camp that hosted Ethiopian refugees during the famine in the 1980s, some 80 kilometers from the Ethiopian-Sudan border in Sudan, 30 November 2020 (issued 02 December 2020). According to World Food Programme on 02 December, about 12,000 Ethiopian refugees from Tigray are accomodated in the Um Rakuba camp as over 40,000 Ethiopian refugees fleed to Sudan since the start of fights in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s military intervention comes after Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces allegedly attacked an army base on 03 November 2020 sparking weeks of unrest. According to reports on 02 December 2020, UN reached an agreement with Ethiopian government to provide aid for the Tigray region of Ethiopia. EPA-EFE/ALA KHEIR
Aid trucks stranded outside Tigray amid reports of clashes
Trucks bearing badly-needed food aid were stuck at a checkpoint outside Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region for a second day Tuesday, aid workers said, as the government and rebels blamed each other for stalling the deliveries.
Ethiopian refugees from Tigray region wait to receive aid at the Um Rakuba refugee camp, the same camp that hosted Ethiopian refugees during the famine in the 1980s, some 80 kilometers from the Ethiopian-Sudan border in Sudan, 30 November 2020 (issued 02 December 2020). According to World Food Programme on 02 December, about 12,000 Ethiopian refugees from Tigray are accomodated in the Um Rakuba camp as over 40,000 Ethiopian refugees fleed to Sudan since the start of fights in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s military intervention comes after Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces allegedly attacked an army base on 03 November 2020 sparking weeks of unrest. According to reports on 02 December 2020, UN reached an agreement with Ethiopian government to provide aid for the Tigray region of Ethiopia. EPA-EFE/ALA KHEIR
Last week the UN said food distribution was at an all-time low in Tigray, where a 14-month conflict has driven hundreds of thousands of people into what it terms “famine-like conditions”.
On Sunday 27 trucks carrying 800 tonnes of food left for the Tigray capital Mekele from the neighbouring Afar region along the only functional land route, according to the World Food Programme.
But the convoy has since Monday been stuck at a checkpoint in the town of Serdo, two humanitarian officials told AFP Tuesday, and it is unclear whether it will proceed.
Government spokesman Legesse Tulu said Monday that rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had “attacked” locations including the town of Abala along the Tigray-Afar border, “cutting off the primary artery of humanitarian aid”.
“NO GOVERNMENT DEFENCE”
He said tens of thousands of people had been displaced over three days and that there were “no government defence forces in this area”.
The TPLF, for its part, blamed pro-government forces for instigating clashes in the area.
The competing claims could not be independently verified.
Fighting broke out in Tigray in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF, the region’s former ruling party, saying the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.
After initially losing control of Tigray’s cities and towns, the TPLF regrouped and retook the region in June, then launched offensives into neighbouring Afar and Amhara.
Tigray itself, a region of six million people, has been subject to what the UN describes as a de facto blockade for months.
Washington accuses Abiy’s government of blocking aid, while Addis Ababa blames rebel incursions.
Humanitarian access was a main topic during last week’s visit to Addis Ababa of the State Department’s highest-ranking diplomat for Africa and its special envoy for the Horn of Africa, diplomats briefed on the talks said.
On Sunday, Ethiopia said it would allow more flights “to augment the land transportation” of food and medicine into Tigray.
AFP documented starvation deaths in Tigray in September, and in November Tigray’s pre-war government said nearly 200 children had died of starvation in hospitals across the region.
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