Humanitarian aid starts trickling into Ethiopia's Tigray: UN

United Nations, Dec 24 (IANS) Humanitarian assistance has started to gradually trickle into Ethiopia's Tigray region although access is limited in areas where conflict is ongoing, said a UN spokesman.The World Health Organization has dispatched emergency health supplies enough to treat more than 10,000 patients for three months and additional medical supplies are on the way, Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying on Wednesday at a press briefing.The World Food Programme managed to deliver food for 35,000 refugees in Adi Harush and Mai Ayni camps this week, he said. But the convoy to Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps has returned due to insecurity in the area, the spokesman told the briefing.Water treatment chemicals were also provided to internally displaced people in northern Amhara as well as western Tigray. Water, sanitation, hygiene and non-food items are also prepositioned in northern Amhara and western Afar for 5,000 internally displaced people, Dujarric said.UN agencies have agreed with the relevant authorities on setting up a temporary humanitarian information-sharing mechanism to facilitate access, movements, safety and security of humanitarian assets, personnel and activities in Tigray, and this includes border areas where there may be people in need, he said.In the meantime, the UN continues to engage with the Ethiopian government and all relevant interlocutors for the safe passage of humanitarian personnel and supplies to all parts of the Tigray state, the spokesman added.Since November 4, the Ethiopian government has been undertaking military operations against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the northernmost Tigray state. The federal government's operations followed the TPLF's attack on a command base of the Ethiopian Defense Force in Mekelle city, capital of Tigray.
--IANS ksk/