Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: What's stopping aid getting in?
Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: What's stopping aid getting in?
(2 months later)
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that its operations in northern Ethiopia are about to grind to a halt due to intense fighting blocking the passage of fuel and food.
Thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in the Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions
No aid trucks have made it into the Tigray region for a month now, and the WFP says supplies are running out.
The United Nations says there is a severe shortage of food and humanitarian supplies in northern Ethiopia's region of Tigray as a consequence of the ongoing conflict there.
Shortages in healthcare centres and hospitals are particularly acute with access to medical supplies severely restricted for many months.
The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels have agreed a humanitarian truce to allow aid into the region, but both have accused the other side of continuing to obstruct deliveries.
"We're on the edge of a humanitarian disaster," says the WFP.
More than 90% of the population in the region is in urgent need of assistance, according to the UN.
More than 90% of the population in the region is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.
Aid delivery only possible by air
Aid convoys have struggled to get through
No aid trucks have successfully delivered aid to Tigray since mid-December. So aid agencies have been forced to transport supplies by air.
The only viable overland route into Tigray has been through the neighbouring Afar region.
This is far more costly and delivers only minimal supplies.
Movement of aid along this route has frequently been affected both by fighting and bureaucratic delays.
"Planes carry less cargo at 25 times the cost of truck convoys" says Samantha Power, of the US international development agency (USAID).
The Tigray hospital running out of food
"Trucking means more food for war-torn Tigray, but the Ethiopian government continues to block access for trucks."
No aid convoys have been able to use this route since 14 December due to renewed fighting and insecurity.
During the first week of March, only 100 metric tonnes of humanitarian supplied were transported via air to Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray, according to the UN, far less than is needed.
The WFP says some categories of food supplies have already been depleted and the remainder could run out very shortly.
About half a million children are estimated to be lacking food in Tigray, including more than 115,000 severely malnourished.
"We're now having to choose who goes hungry to prevent another from starving," says Michael Dunford, WFP's Regional Director for Eastern Africa.
Families are exhausting all remaining means to access food, with three quarters of the population reported to be using extreme coping strategies to survive, the UN says.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) says about 70 trucks, which had been waiting to set off for Tigray from the neighbouring Afar, have now offloaded their supplies and returned to warehouses for storage.
"The level of food insecurity is expected to worsen in the coming months as remaining food stocks from the last harvest, which was half of normal year production, get depleted."
In addition to supplies not getting in, the WFP has also previously raised concerns that trucks delivering aid into Tigray have not been returning, with as many as 900 trucks affected.
What's blocking overland routes into Tigray?
The Ethiopian government accuses the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of commandeering the trucks for their own use, but the rebels deny the accusations.
UN aid agencies estimate that 100 trucks carrying food, non-food items and fuel, are required to the deliver the required aid into Tigray every day.
Ethiopia's Tigray war - and how it erupted
But the main routes have been blocked for many months due to the ongoing conflict.
To give a scale of the urgency of the situation, the UN says 100 trucks a day need to cross into Tigray to meet the needs there.
Continued fighting in the border region between Tigray and neighbouring Afar province to the east has made that route too dangerous.
The US international development agency (USAID) says the conflict is "now one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world."
Roads from the Amhara region to the south and Sudan to the west have also been closed as opposing militia contest for control of these areas.
Other routes remain blocked
There is no access either via Tigray's northern border with Eritrea.
To the south of Tigray, pro-government forces in the Amhara region have been preventing supplies getting through.
What does the government say?
Fighting had also spread into this region, displacing more people and making the routes insecure.
The Ethiopian government rejects claims that Ethiopia is blocking aid, blaming the rebels of the TPLF instead.
It's also been impossible to bring in aid by road from Sudan, into western Tigray, an area under the control of groups supporting the Ethiopian government.
It says that an aid convoy set off from Semera, the capital of Afar province on 17 March, bound for Mekelle, raising hopes that the main overland route would be operational once again. But no aid convoy has yet reached there.
All sides in the conflict have been accused of attacking or confiscating aid supplies.
The TPLF have denied government accusations that they are to blame for disrupting the aid.
The US has accused TPLF fighters of attacking and looting aid warehouses in the Amhara region.
"At no time before, during or after the fighting have aid trucks been prevented from passing through into Tigray by Tigray forces," it has said.
The WFP says rebel fighters together with locals looted aid warehouses in the city of Kombolcha moments before it was recaptured by the Ethiopian army.
Fuel scarcity a challenge
"WFP teams on the ground were not able to prevent the looting in the face of extreme intimidation, including staff being held at gunpoint," it says.
In addition to other supplies, availability of fuel has been a key issue.
Humanitarian convoys are facing severe problems accessing the region, as the conflict escalates
The government has been restricting movement of fuel into Tigray for many months, which has severely affected the distribution of aid within Tigray.
"The government of Ethiopia has created de facto blockades, making communications, banking, and other vital services needed for aid efforts almost non-existent," says USAID.
"With no fuel, even if we can get supplies in, getting them to where they need to go is very difficult, or impossible," says WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The movement of humanitarian workers has also been affected by the escalating fighting.
Humanitarian convoys are facing severe problems accessing the Tigray region
Regular flights between Mekelle and the capital Addis Ababa are however now operational after they were suspended on 22 October as the government launched a series of airstrikes against targets in rebel-controlled areas.
For many months, the Ethiopian government was also restricting movement of medical supplies.
Shortage of funding
The WHO was however allowed to airlift some supplies in February.
The international relief operation is also facing severe financial constraints. The UN estimates that it needs about $1.2bn in additional funding for its humanitarian response in northern Ethiopia.
It estimates that 2,200 tonnes of emergency health supplies are needed to respond to urgent health needs in Tigray.
The WFP says it is likely to run out of food and nutrition supplies across all of Ethiopia from from February due to "an unprecedented lack of funding."
Only 221 tonnes have so far been delivered - just about 4% of what is needed.
It needs an additional $337m to deliver its emergency food assistance response in Northern Ethiopia.
Large parts of the region have been under a communications blackout and without electricity, affecting the delivery of key services.
"Shortages of fuel and cash, as well as a communications blackout, are significantly hindering the resumption and preventing the scale-up of humanitarian response," the UN says.
This report was first published in July and has been updated to include the latest information.
