{"id":10044,"date":"2021-09-25T23:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T23:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.axumawian.com\/?p=10044"},"modified":"2021-09-25T23:17:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T23:17:00","slug":"ethiopias-tigray-crisis-set-to-worsen-dramatically-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=10044","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray crisis \u2018set to worsen dramatically\u2019: UN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

War-hit region facing severe shortage of aid, cash and fuel due to \u2018de facto humanitarian aid blockade\u2019, UN says.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Source: Al Jazeera<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

September 2, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n

Ten months since the start of Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray war, the United Nations has warned that the humanitarian situation in the country\u2019s northernmost region is set to \u201cworsen dramatically\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cStocks of relief aid, cash and fuel are running very low or are completely depleted. Food stocks already ran out on 20 August,\u201d Grant Leaity, the UN\u2019s acting humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia,\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cThe region remains under a de facto humanitarian aid blockade, where access to bring life-saving humanitarian relief continues to be extremely restricted,\u201d Leaity added, noting that no trucks had been able to enter Tigray since August 22.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Villagers return from a market to Yechila town in south central Tigray walking past burned vehicles, in Tigray, Ethiopia [File: Giulia Paravicini\/Reuters]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Fighting broke out in November 2020 between Ethiopia\u2019s federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region of some six million people. Thousands have died and more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n

The war has dragged on for months, triggering a humanitarian crisis in Tigray that has left 400,000 people facing famine-like conditions, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n

In his statement, Leaity said at least 100 trucks of food, non-food items and fuel must enter Tigray on a daily basis \u201cto sustain an adequate response\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cTo date, and since 12 July, only 335 trucks have entered the region \u2013 or about 9 percent of the required 3,900 trucks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWith the inability to bring in sufficient and sustained levels of humanitarian supplies, cash and fuel, the humanitarian situation in the north of Ethiopia is set to worsen dramatically, particularly in Tigray region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Since the conflict erupted, the Ethiopian authorities and the Tigrayan rebels have traded blame for the issue, with each side accusing the other of obstructing aid convoys and driving a desperate population into famine.<\/p>\n\n\n

As the rebels have pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, the situation there has also worsened, with 1.7 million people \u201con the brink of famine\u201d, Leaity said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cThe lives of millions of civilians \u2026 depend on our capacity to reach them with food, nutrition supplies, medicine and other critical assistance. We need to reach them immediately and without obstruction to avert famine and significant levels of mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\u2018Stealing aid\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n

Ethiopian troops and Tigrayan forces alike have also been accused of looting aid, with the US aid agency this week calling the alleged thefts a \u201cgreat concern for humanitarians\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cThroughout nine months of conflict all of the warring parties have been stealing aid,\u201d Sean Jones, head of the USAID mission in Addis Ababa, told Ethiopian state broadcaster EBC on Tuesday, according to a transcript released by the American embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda on Wednesday condemned the alleged looters for their \u201cunacceptable behaviour\u201d, but said that while the rebels could not \u201cvouch for \u2026 off-grid fighters in such matters, we have evidence that such looting is mainly orchestrated by local individuals and groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

At a news conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s spokesperson Billene Seyoum once again dismissed allegations that the Ethiopian government is blocking aid. She said trucks were \u201cen route\u201d to Tigray, adding that the number of checkpoints on the road referred to by the UN had been reduced to three from seven.<\/p>\n\n\n

In a separate statement, the UN\u2019s Leaity condemned the killings of aid workers in Tigray, saying another 11 deaths had been reported between January and July this year, bringing the total number slain to 23 since war erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cOnce again, we are shaken by this news. Violence against aid workers is intolerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War-hit region facing severe shortage of aid, cash and fuel due to \u2018de facto humanitarian aid blockade\u2019, UN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,32],"class_list":["post-10044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-al-jazeera","tag-english"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",956,636,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",300,200,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",640,426,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",956,636,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",956,636,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",825,549,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",590,393,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1.jpg",600,399,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/113-1-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"Article<\/a>","tag_info":"Article","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}