A rare humanitarian window created by Ethiopia has allowed aid to flow into the embattled Northern Ethiopian region of Tigray which will go a long way to saving the lives of the people, especially women and children.
A senior official of the United Nations Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF) in the country, Gianfranco Rotigliano, who confirmed the truce between Ethiopian forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) in Addis Ababa on Monday, that the humanitarian aid now flowing into the previously inaccessible areas in the Tigray region is a positive change since the government truce was declared in March.
Rotigliano says so far, 170 trucks carrying food, medicine, non-food items and fuel, were able to get into previously blockaded areas in April and expects the number to increase to more than 1,000 trucks in the coming month, adding that 100 trucks of such supplies need to arrive in Tigray every day for months to meet the region’s humanitarian needs.
Rotigliano added that more than five million people in Tigray require international aid while an additional seven million people in the Amhara and Afar regions are also in need of aids.
“We have great needs in terms of repairing infrastructures that were looted, destroyed… you know the lack of supplies in certain areas make it also very difficult for children to get health services, to get immunization.
“Many schools are closed so children cannot go to school and there are more risks for exploitation and sexual abuse in the region,” Rotigliano said.
The UN official also estimates that nearly 400,000 children in northern Ethiopia are currently malnourished, while 80,000 severely malnourished children have been treated for life-threatening conditions this year, compared to 36,500 during the same period last year, indicating a seriously deteriorating situation.
Rotigliano also explained that the greatest needs of the Tigray people include food, seed, fertilizers, as well as cash to pay civil servants, doctors, nurses, and other essential workers who receive no salary.