More aid reaches Ethiopia’s Tigray region following truce

Source: AP, 53 minutes ago, 2022-11-16

Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshall Birhanu Jula, left, and Head of the Tigray Forces Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede, right, exchange signed copies of an agreement, at Ethiopian peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region agreed Saturday to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region and form a joint disarmament committee following last week’s truce. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — More aid arrived in Ethiopia’s Tigray Wednesday following the signing of a truce earlier this month calling for unhindered humanitarian access to the war-torn northern region.

The U.N.’s World Food Program reported that its trucks had entered northwestern Tigray via the city of Gondar in the neighboring region of Amhara. The Gondar route had previously been closed to aid groups after the Tigray rebels recaptured large areas of that region in June 2021, with subsequent convoys passing through the region of Afar to the east of Tigray.

“More food, nutrition, medical cargo will follow imminently, via all routes possible,” the WFP said, adding that food will be delivered to people in the Tigray town of Mai Tsebri.

A WFP spokesperson told The Associated Press that the convoy consisted of 15 trucks carrying 300 tons of food.

The WFP convoy arrived a day after the International Committee of the Red Cross delivered 40 tons of medical supplies to Tigray’s capital, Mekele. The ICRC’s shipment was the first batch of international aid to reach Tigray since August.ADVERTISEMENT