The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said aid deliveries being sent into the war-ridden Tigray were “not matching the needs” of the affected people, reported The Arab News.
The WFP said all four road corridors into Ethiopia’s Tigray region had reopened, allowing a significant boost in aid supplies reaching the conflict-hit region.
“However, deliveries of assistance within Tigray are not matching the needs and WFP and its cooperating partners urgently need access to all parts of the region,” the UN food agency said in a statement on Friday.
Earlier this month, the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities after a two-year conflict. Restoring aid deliveries to Tigray was a crucial part of the ceasefire agreement.
Notably, aid into Tigray and other war-affected regions were stopped in late August when fighting resumed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan rebels.
The UN had previously warned that some 90 percent of Tigray’s six million people were dependent on food assistance. The region faced severe shortages of medicines and limited access to electricity, banking and communications.
On Friday, humanitarian flights carrying passengers to Mekele resumed for the first time since August after receiving government approval. Aid deliveries into Shire have also commenced for the first time ever.
But despite resumption of aid deliveries, WFP said some parts of eastern and central zones of Tigray are still inaccessible, hindering sufficient aid delivery.
The WFP said it has reached 29 percent of its caseload of 2.1 million people with food assistance in the Tigray region since the start of November.
The UN food agency said an estimated 13.6 million people across Tigray and its neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar were dependent on humanitarian aid due to the war, which broke out in November 2020.
