'Aid access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region still hindered'

ANKARA (AA) – Despite the Ethiopian government’s deal with the UN, humanitarian access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region “is still significantly constrained,” an aid group said Tuesday.

“Children, women and men in Tigray have now borne the brunt of this conflict for more than a month without any emergency assistance from outside the region,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said in a statement.

He stressed that people in the region “can no longer be made to wait.”

“Aid must not be left at a standstill. We have been standing ready to deliver food, emergency shelter and other essential materials for weeks, and we expected this deal [between the Ethiopian government and the UN] to clear the way,” Egeland said.

“We strongly urge all authorities in Ethiopia, as well our UN partners, to avoid any further lags and urgently permit humanitarian deliveries, so that we can get help to people who urgently need it.”

Last week, Ethiopia’s government said it had signed a humanitarian access deal with the UN to coordinate essential supplies for Tigray.

An estimated 41,000 Ethiopians fled to Sudan after the government launched an operation against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on Nov. 4.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared the end of military operations in the region on Nov. 28 after the fall of the regional capital, Mekelle.