Ethiopia: Two million children in the Tigray region have been cut off from humanitarian aid, the UN says

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About 2.3 million minors are struggling to receive basic humanitarian assistance, such as treatment for malnutrition, essential vaccines, emergency medicine, and water and sanitation, said UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for children, on Tuesday.

“We are extremely concerned that the longer access to them is delayed, the worse their situation will get, as food supplies, including ready-to-eat therapeutic foods to treat childhood malnutrition, run out of medicines, water, fuel and other supplies . ‘,’ Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director said in a statement.

The conflict between the government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) began in early November and threatens to reverse years of progress in Africa’s second most populous country and in the wider region of the Horn of Africa. According to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, more than 50,000 Ethiopian refugees have now entered Sudan, nearly half of them children.

UNICEF called for “urgent, lasting, unconditional and impartial humanitarian access” to affected families and urged the Ethiopian government to allow the free movement of civilians seeking safety elsewhere.

“Protecting these children, many of whom are refugees and internally displaced persons, and providing them with humanitarian assistance, must be a priority,” Fore added.

An agreement with the federal government, announced by the UN on December 2, was to provide aid workers with “unfettered, sustainable and safe access” to those in need of humanitarian assistance in areas now under government control. At the time, UNHCR said it was “ready” to resume full humanitarian activities in the Tigray region.
But Friday, the UN was forced to call again for “unfettered access to Tigray to reach those in need,” ahead of UNICEF’s statement on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed paid a visit to Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, on Sunday. Telecommunications and electricity are being restored and humanitarian assistance is provided, he said in a tweet.
“Our humanitarian aid efforts will also be strengthened to help the vulnerable. We will restore, rebuild and develop,” the 2019 Nobel laureate said in a tweet on December 5.
Meanwhile, the World Food Program, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has struggled to respond to the tsunami of refugees in Sudan and has appealed to the international community to make more donations.
Is part of the Umm Rakouba refugee camp, hosting people fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, Gedaref, Eastern Sudan, on Monday, December 14.

UNHCR and its partners also need support to prevent outbreaks of Covid-19 among refugees living in overcrowded conditions, including more hand-washing stations, PPE kits and education campaigns, the agency said Friday.

“The situation is generally very volatile and very worrying,” regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Patrick Youssef, told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Tuesday. “More than a month since the start of the crisis … we have witnessed a shortage of food, access to bathing services, but Mekelle, for example, is also struggling with the water supply. So basic facilities.”

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