The first batch of international aid in three months has reached Ethiopia's war-torn region of Tigray, a week after a ceasefire between the government and rebels was agreed.
Hundreds of thousands of people are facing starvation in the area, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front have been at war for 17 months.
“WFP-led convoys to Tigray are back on the road & making steady progress!” the UN's World Food Programme said on Twitter.
“Just arrived in Erepti [in the neighbouring Afar region] & will soon cross into Tigray, bringing in over 500 mt [tonnes] of urgently needed WFP/partner food & nutrition supplies for communities on edge of starvation.”
Captive Ethiopian soldiers arrive at the Mekele Rehabilitation Centre in Tigray, Ethiopia, after a four-day journey from Abdi Eshir. All photos: AFP
Women welcome Tigray People's Liberation Front fighters as they return to Mekele after seizing control of the city in June 2021.
Ethiopians who fled the Tigray conflict wait to charge their phones at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, Sudan.
A member of the Afar Special Forces stands in front of the debris of a house on the outskirts of the village of Bisober in Tigray.
People hold candles and Ethiopian flags at a memorial service for the victims of the Tigray conflict in Addis Ababa.
An Ethiopian refugee who fled fighting in Tigray waits behind a fence in a camp in Sudan.
Refugees living in a camp in Sudan after fleeing violence in Tigray.
A woman walks among the remains of a destroyed factory in Ataye, Ethiopia, where more than 100 civilians died in a recent flare-up of violence.
Two members of the Amhara militia ride in the back of a pick-up truck. Amharas and Tigrayans were uneasy neighbours before the current fighting, with tension over land sparking violent clashes.
Militias from the Amhara region have been involved in the fighting in Tigray.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians gather at a rally organised by the mayor of Addis Ababa to show support for the military's efforts in Tigray.
Zeleke Alabachew, farmer and militia fighter, tends to his land near the village of Tekeldengy, Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation.
People celebrate the liberation of opposition leaders in the city of Alamata, Ethiopia.
A family fleeing violence sit in a former classroom at May Weyni secondary school, now hosting 10,500 displaced people, in Mekele, capital of Tigray.
Ethiopian refugees travel to Sudan to escape violence in Tigray.
Ethiopian refugees gather to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Tigray People's Liberation Front at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, Sudan. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics before being ousted from their regional stronghold last year.
An Ethiopian refugee sets up a tent in a camp in the town of Gedaref, Sudan, after being transported from the border reception centre.
Pro-Tigrayan demonstrators display placards during a protest in front of the chancellery in Berlin.
The aftermath of heavy shelling in Wukro, a city north of Mekele, in Ethiopia.
The TPLF said the 20 aid lorries were now in territory under its control in Afar and on their way to Tigray's capital Mekele. While some aid was arriving in Tigray's capital Mekelle by air, it was insufficient, the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs Ethiopia office said.
“This is one good step in the right direction; the bottom line, though, isn't about how many lorries are allowed but whether there is a system in place to ensure unfettered humanitarian access for the needy!” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter.
He told AFP in Nairobi that it was likely that the aid convoy would take “a few hours” to reach Mekele as the lorries may have to refuel.
The development comes just days after both sides accused each other of blocking an aid convoy headed for Tigray, which has not seen any humanitarian supplies arrive by road since December 15.
War has been raging in the region since November 2020.
Famine risk
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Malnutrition and food insecurity are rampant in northern Ethiopia, where an estimated nine million people across the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions need critical food assistance due to conflict, WFP says.
OCHA said in a report on Thursday that food stocks in Tigray were “minimal” and as a result humanitarian workers had cut back or even halted their operations.
Tigrayan leaders have in the past accused federal authorities and regional governments in Afar and Amhara of blocking aid into Tigray, accusations they deny.
The UN has repeatedly called on Ethiopia's government to get aid into the north and has said that shortages there were “man-made” .