Following the declaration of a unilateral truce by the Ethiopian government last week, a convoy of trucks carrying food aid has entered territory controlled by fighters loyal to the fugitive leaders of Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Friday.
The truck is the first humanitarian convoy to move into the Tigray region since Dec. 14, the United Nations World Food Programme said.
The U.N. estimates that 90% of Tigray’s 6 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It says 100 trucks must enter every day to feed people there.
“WFP-led convoys to Tigray are back on the road & making steady progress,” the agency said on Twitter. It added that the trucks “arrived in Erepti” carrying over 500 metric tons of food supplies “for communities on edge of starvation.” The UN World Food Programme concludes.
The Tigray Region is the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia. The Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Formerly known as Region 1, its capital and largest city are Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fifth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states in Ethiopia. 96 percent of Tigrayans are Orthodox Christian.
Erepti is a district in the neighboring state of Afar, into which the war has spilled in recent months. Fighters loyal to the outlawed party of Tigray’s leaders — the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF — are present in six districts in Afar, having entered the region in December.
The spokesperson of the TPLF, Getachew Reda, confirmed on Twitter that 20 WFP trucks had crossed into territory controlled by their fighters and are now on their way to Mekele, the Tigray capital. The Tigray fighters had said they would observe the humanitarian truce declared by the government if aid started to reach Tigray.
“This is one good step in the right direction,” Getachew added. “The bottom line, though, isn’t about how many trucks are allowed but whether there is a system in place to ensure unfettered humanitarian access for the needy!”