The World Health Organization says the peace process has not yet allowed medical aid to reach all those in need in the northern region of Ethiopia.
The United Nations is still unable to find a way to bring aid to Tigray, Ethiopia, a month after the end of the war, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
The UN health agency said on Friday that only a small amount of aid had been able to enter the troubled northern region after two years of conflict.
The Ethiopian government and Tigray’s armed forces agreed on November 2 to end the fighting, the latest in a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing starvation.
“The peace process has not resulted in full access, unlimited access and the level of health care that the people of Tigray need,” WHO Director-General Dr Mike Ryan told a press conference.
“I still doubt it because we’ve been waiting so long to find these desperate people.”
Last week the UN’s World Food Program said that aid donations to Tigray “do not match the needs” of the affected region.
Ryan said that there was an issue in western Tigray in areas controlled by the army, and some areas under the control of the Eritrean army.
“There are still many areas in the country that are under the control of the Eritrean military, which they do not have access to, and disturbing reports are coming in about what the people there are doing,” he said.
Soldiers from Eritrea, in the north, and Ethiopians from the neighboring Amhara region, in the south, fought with Ethiopian soldiers in Tigray but did not join them.
Tigray has been cut off from the rest of the world for more than a year and has faced severe shortages of medicine and limited access to electricity, banking and communications – services that need to be restored for relief operations to continue.
“It’s very difficult to plan for escalation whenever you can reduce your ambitions,” Ryan said, adding that UN agencies “welcome an end to violence, any opportunity that is presented”.
“But the people of Tigray are rare,” he said. “They have spent years without access to proper medical care and proper nutrition and they need our help now. Not next week, not next month. Now.”
Ryan said some WHO staff were able to step in, while the reduced fuel allocation would allow the agency to carry out the limited work needed in the region.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Ethiopian government said that together with the Tigrayan army, they gathered in Tigray region to discuss the disarmament plans that were part of the peace agreement signed in South Africa last month, AFP reported.
The peace agreement stated that the Tigray army must disarm within 30 days of signing, and that the Ethiopian army will control “all federal facilities, installations and major infrastructure such as airports and highways within the Tigray region.”
However, Tigray officials say disarmament cannot begin until the Ethiopian government withdraws the fighters from Eritrea and Amhara.
