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The desperate need for food aid in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region will persist until 2022 as the harvest is on the verge of failure, the UN humanitarian aid chief warned on Friday. , Martin Griffiths.
Griffiths, the new UN emergency relief coordinator, sounded the alarm on the scale of the challenges facing the northern region, after a six-day visit to Ethiopia.
He visited the capital Addis Ababa and Tigray and met Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen.
“I have had a lot of discussions with the local administrators in Tigray, about what they need – and they need food,” Griffiths said at a press conference at the UN in Geneva.
“The crop, which has just been planted, is only expected to produce between a quarter and at most half of its probable production. The need for food will therefore continue until next year. a small effort.”
Griffiths reiterated his call for an end to the fighting.
“The war must end and the humanitarian ceasefire is a dire necessity,” he said.
Abiy sent troops to Tigray last November to overthrow the region’s ruling party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray, a move he said was in response to TPLF attacks on army camps. federal.
Although the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate declared victory later in the month, TPLF leaders remained at large and the fighting dragged on.
Griffiths welcomed Abiy’s unilateral ceasefire declaration and added: “Make it reciprocal and give the people of Tigray, and their neighbors now, a half chance of survival in these next few months of desperate need. “
Trucks, “ready” supplies
The humanitarian chief said the main conclusion of his visit was the need to transport 100 trucks of aid a day to Tigray.
“That’s the challenge, is to make this pipeline work,” he said.
Griffiths said Ethiopia’s leaders “have all told me constructively and firmly about their efforts to make this work.”
UN agencies struck last week, saying they face continued difficulties in getting supplies, personnel and equipment to the Tigrayan capital Mekele.
“So far we have just seen 178 trucks – which were stranded in Afar, the neighboring region, waiting to enter – (which) have passed through and have now reached Mekele,” Griffiths said.
“I guess there are about 40 more waiting to get to their destination.”
Griffiths said if the blockages hampering the flow of trucks into Tigray stopped, the UN was ready to act.
“Yes, we are ready to do it,” he told reporters.
“The World Food Program, which is leading the humanitarian logistics efforts, has prepared the trucks and supplies and is ensuring that the pipeline can continue to flow, if allowed.”
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