Ethiopia: aid convoys reach embattled Tigray after truce

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.

Aid convoys were in or on their way to Ethiopia's conflict-ravaged Tigray region on Thursday, humanitarian agencies said, the latest deliveries to take advantage of a truce between the country's warring sides.

The 17-month conflict between government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has created a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia and sparked famine fears in Tigray, which has for many months been under what the UN describes as a de facto blockade.

Aid deliveries by road to the stricken region of six million people were cut off in mid-December and only limited medical and other supplies could be flown in.

But the first new convoys sent by the UN's World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross finally arrived at the beginning of April, about a week after the truce was declared.

The ICRC said on Twitter on Thursday that another shipment carrying food and medical supplies, as well as household items, had arrived in Mekele, the capital of Tigray.

"The convoy also carried essential equipment for the orthopaedic rehabilitation centre," it said.

The WFP announced that a second convoy was on its way to Mekele.

"Forty-seven trucks with food, nutrition and other life-saving supplies plus three fuel tankers – fundamental to deliver these items to communities in #Tigray," it tweeted.

The convoy had a "smooth journey so far with support from all authorities", the WFP said, as the truce between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the TPLF continues to hold, allowing aid to reach the battered region.

The new deliveries coincide with a trip to Ethiopia this week by the outgoing US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, as Washington steps up diplomatic pressure to allow aid to reach Tigray. The National reported this week that Mr Satterfiled will step down this summer after less than six months in the job.

On Thursday, the Ethiopian government said it "reaffirms its commitment to work closely with the international community and other stakeholders to ensure proper access to humanitarian aid".

"The government also urges the international community to put pressure on Tigray militants to withdraw fully from the areas they occupy in the Afar and Amhara regions to pave the way for a smooth aid delivery for those in need."

The TPLF's withdrawal from the two regions neighbouring Tigray was a key condition set by the government when it announced a humanitarian truce on March 24.

The rebels in turn urged the Ethiopian authorities "to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unfettered humanitarian access" to Tigray.

Earlier this week, the TPLF announced that its troops were leaving Erebti, one of the areas they occupy in Afar.

Doctors at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, say patients are dying as medics face shortages of life-saving drugs and oxygen. AP Photo

But Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said on Thursday the reports that Tigrayan forces have moved out of Afar "need verification".

The government and the rebels have long accused each other of blocking aid to Tigray, where people are living without basic services such as electricity, internet, telecommunications or banking.

The war has killed untold numbers of people, displaced more than two million and left more than nine million in need of food aid, according to the UN.

Nearly 40 percent of Tigray's six million inhabitants face "an extreme lack of food", the UN said in January, with fuel shortages at times forcing aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies on foot.

The conflict erupted in November 2020 when Nobel laureate Mr Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying the move was a response to rebel attacks on army camps.

The move followed months of tensions between the government and the TPLF, which dominated politics in Ethiopia for three decades before Mr Abiy came to power in 2018.