Ethiopia: Two million children in Tigray region cut off humanitarian aid, says UN

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Some 2.3 million children are struggling for basic humanitarian aid, such as treatment for malnutrition, critical vaccines, emergency medicines and water and sanitation supplies, UNICEF, the UN agency responsible, said on Tuesday. of childhood.

“We are extremely concerned that the longer access to them is delayed, the worse their situation will be as food supplies, including therapeutic foods ready for the treatment of child malnutrition, medicines, l “Water, fuel and other staples will run out,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement.

The conflict between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) began in early November and threatens to undo years of progress in Africa’s second most populous country, as well as in the wider Horn region. of Africa. More than 50,000 Ethiopian refugees have now crossed into Sudan, according to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, of which nearly half are children.

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

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

An agreement with the federal government, announced Dec. 2 by the United Nations, was supposed to allow humanitarian workers “unhindered, sustained and secure access” to those in need of humanitarian supplies in areas now under government control. At the time, UNHCR said it was “ready” to resume full humanitarian activities in the Tigray region.
However, on Friday the UN was forced to ask again for “free access to Tigray to reach people in need,” ahead of Tuesday’s UNICEF statement.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, on Sunday. Telecommunications and electricity are being restored and humanitarian aid was provided, he said in a tweet.
“Our humanitarian assistance efforts will also continue to be strengthened to care for vulnerable people. We will restore, rebuild and develop,” the 2019 Nobel Prize winner said in a tweet on December 5th.
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 called on the international community to step up donations.
Part of the Umm Rakouba refugee camp, which hosted people fleeing the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, Gedaref, southern Sudan, on Monday 14 December.

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

“The situation in general is very fluid and very worrying,” Becky Anderson, the regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Patrick Youssef, told CNN on Tuesday. “More than a month since the beginning of the crisis … we have witnessed a lack of food, access to bathroom services, but also Mekelle, for example, has been struggling with the water supply So the basic and basic services “.

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