The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday said fighting in northern Ethiopia has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in recent weeks in parts of Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, reported The Siasat Daily.
The OCHA said humanitarian workers are unable to access large parts of Tigray and several areas in adjacent Amhara and Afar due to the ongoing fighting. Humanitarian convoys remain suspended through the only available land route into Tigray.
The UN humanitarian agency said that fighting has blocked Humanitarian Air Service flights to and from Tigray for almost a month, halting the transport of commodities and operational cash into the embattled region.
The OCHA said the humanitarian agency along with its partner organizations, continue to respond with available stocks in accessible areas across the three regions, but it is not enough to meet the increasing needs.
The agency said that 1.4 million people were provided with food aid in Tigray at the beginning of September, bringing the total to more than 2.1 million out of the 5.4 million people targeted since August.
In Amhara, the humanitarian agencies provided food to the displaced people, including more than 30,000 people at Jarra site.
The OCHA said that distribution of water and non-food items have begun in some displacement sites, and 86 mobile health and nutrition teams are operating in the region. It said that its partner organizations reached 196,000 people with food and other services in Afar.
The UN humanitarian agency appealed to all parties to the conflict to spare civilians and civilian objects from the fighting, and allow for the resumption of rapid and unimpeded passage of aid workers and supplies into all conflict-affected areas, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
In related news, the UN has warned that at least 36.1 million people in the Horn of Africa, including 24.1 million in Ethiopia, 7.8 million in Somalia, and 4.2 million in Kenya, will be affected by severe drought in October.
