First aid convoy enters Ethiopia’s Tigray amid humanitarian crisis

An international aid convoy has arrived in Ethiopia’s northernmost region of Tigray, carrying medicine and other supplies for the first time since more than a month ago, when an escalation of violence triggered a refugee crisis and a humanitarian disaster in the African country.

The non-governmental convoy of seven trucks arrived in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, on Saturday, according to a statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The trucks brought medicine and medical equipment for 400 wounded people as well as relief supplies to the city of half a million, said ICRC.

“It is the first international aid to arrive in Mekelle since fighting erupted in Tigray more than one month ago,” it stressed.

Tigray, with a population of six million — some one million of them now thought to have been displaced — has remained cut off from the world since an armed conflict erupted between Ethiopian troops and local rebels there last month.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an army offensive in the restive region on November 4, in response to a deadly attack on an army base that killed at least 54 people.

Abiy accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s ruling party, of having staged the attack.

“Doctors and nurses have been forced to make impossible choices of which services to continue and which services to cut, after going weeks without new supplies, running water, and electricity,” said Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s regional director for Africa.

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“This medical shipment will inject new stocks, help patients, and reduce those impossible life-or-death triage decisions,” he said.

The Ethiopian government, which had restricted access to the region, said earlier this week that it had defeated forces loyal to the TPLF and struck a deal with the United Nations (UN) to allow aid.

Some aid agencies, however, say the agreement is too restrictive and security remains a problem.

On Friday, the International Rescue Committee said one of its staffers had been killed last month at a refugee camp for Eritreans.

The Danish Refugee Council, which also assists the Eritrean refugees, said three of its guards had been killed, but did not specify where.

The UN also said on Friday that it had not been able to reach four refugee camps housing nearly 100,000 Eritreans in Tigray.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said the UNHCR had received “an overwhelming number of disturbing reports” of refugees being killed or kidnapped and forcibly returned to Eritrea, which borders Tigray to the north.

“If confirmed, these actions would constitute a major violation of international law,” he said.

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The International Organization for Migration also said it was “extremely concerned” by reports of Eritreans being relocated against their will.

Thousands of people have been killed, according to the International Crisis Group think tank, and around 50,000 Ethiopians have fled to refugee camps across the border in Sudan.

Human rights groups say they have documented at least one large-scale massacre in the region, and that others are feared.

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