ADDIS ABABA: Trucks bearing badly-needed food aid were stuck at a checkpoint outside Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region for a second day Tuesday, aid workers said, as the government and rebels blamed each other for stalling the deliveries.
Last week the UN said food distribution was at an all-time low in Tigray, where a 14-month conflict has driven hundreds of thousands of people into what it terms “famine-like conditions.”
On Sunday 27 trucks carrying 800 tons of food left for the Tigray capital Mekele from the neighboring Afar region along the only functional land route, according to the World Food Programme.
But the convoy has since Monday been stuck at a checkpoint in the town of Serdo, two humanitarian officials told AFP Tuesday, and it is unclear whether it will proceed.
Government spokesman Legesse Tulu said Monday that rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had “attacked” locations including the town of Abala along the Tigray-Afar border, “cutting off the primary artery of humanitarian aid.”
He said tens of thousands of people had been displaced over three days and that there were “no government defense forces in this area.”
The TPLF, for its part, blamed pro-government forces for instigating clashes in the area.
The competing claims could not be independently verified.
Fighting broke out in Tigray in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF, the region’s former ruling party, saying the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.
After initially losing control of Tigray’s cities and towns, the TPLF regrouped and retook the region in June, then launched offensives into neighboring Afar and Amhara.
Tigray itself, a region of six million people, has been subject to what the UN describes as a de facto blockade for months.
Washington accuses Abiy’s government of blocking aid, while Addis Ababa blames rebel incursions.
Humanitarian access was a main topic during last week’s visit to Addis Ababa of the State Department’s highest-ranking diplomat for Africa and its special envoy for the Horn of Africa, diplomats briefed on the talks said.
On Sunday, Ethiopia said it would allow more flights “to augment the land transportation” of food and medicine into Tigray.
AFP documented starvation deaths in Tigray in September, and in November Tigray’s pre-war government said nearly 200 children had died of starvation in hospitals across the region.
Aid trucks stranded outside Tigray amid reports of clashes
https://arab.news/mertv
Aid trucks stranded outside Tigray amid reports of clashes
- Tens of thousands of people had been displaced over three days and that there were “no government defense forces in this area"
NATO chief talks Arctic security with Rubio amid US Greenland push
- Trump says controlling the mineral-rich island is crucial for US national security
- NATO has sought to deflect Washington’s interest in Greenland
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte on Friday discussed efforts to bolster Arctic security with US top diplomat Marco Rubio, after President Donald Trump insisted he wants to take control of Greenland.
The US leader has rattled allies by refusing to rule out using military force to take over the autonomous territory of fellow NATO member Denmark.
Trump says controlling the mineral-rich island is crucial for US national security given the rising threat of Russia and China in the Arctic.
NATO has sought to deflect Washington’s interest in Greenland by emphasising steps it is taking to bolster security in the region.
A NATO spokeswoman said Rutte spoke with Rubio “on the importance of the Arctic to our shared security and how NATO is working to enhance our capabilities in the High North.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an armed US attack to take Greenland could spell the end for the 76-year-old Western military alliance.
But the head of NATO’s forces in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, said Friday the alliance was far from being in “a crisis,” following President Donald Trump’s threats.
