Aid workers in Ethiopia’s Tigray region will this week run out of food to deliver to millions of people already living in famine conditions, said the head of the US Government’s humanitarian agency.
“USAID and its partners and other humanitarian organizations have emptied their stores of food stored in Tigray,” said Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in a statement late Thursday.
War broke out in November between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region. The conflict has been marked by accusations of war crimes, killing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s poorest regions.
The UN warned last month that more than 100,000 children in Tigray could starve to death. On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire and unlimited access to aid in Tigray.
“People in Tigray are starving with up to 900,000 in famine and more than five million in desperate need of humanitarian aid,” says Power. Spokesmen for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the government’s emergency working group for Tigray did not respond to requests for comment.
An Abiy spokesman told a news conference last week that 277 aid trucks had entered Tigray, without specifying the time period during which the trucks entered. Billene Seyoum, the spokeswoman, also said that more than ten international aid groups and UN agencies are active in humanitarian operations in Tigray and that the federal government is also providing support.
Power said 100 trucks carrying food and life-saving supplies must arrive in Tigray every day to meet the “great” humanitarian needs there. A few days ago, only about 320 trucks had arrived, less than 7% of what is required, reads her statement.
The Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire in June after Tigrayan forces recaptured the regional capital Mekelle and recaptured most of the region. The Tigray forces dismissed this as a “joke” and issued conditions for a ceasefire.
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