Ethiopia, United Nations agree on humanitarian access to war-hit Tigray
Are negotiations possible?
Ethiopia and the United Nations have agreed to channel humanitarian accessto the northern region of Tigray.
Federal troops have been battling the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and have captured the regional capital Mekelle. A month of war is believed to have killed thousands of combatants and civilians in the region.
The accord "seeks to enable unimpeded, sustained and secure access for humanitarian personnel and services in areas under the control of the federal government in Tigray and the bordering areas of Amhara and Afar regions", Xinhua news agency quoted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as saying in a statement on Wednesday.
An assessment and response mission already is under way to the east in Afar`s border areas to reach the internally displaced.
"We, along with our humanitarian partners in Ethiopia, are engaging with the federal government and all parties to the conflict to ensure that humanitarian action in Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions is strictly based on needs," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The agreement aims to help people without distinction of any kind other than the urgency of their needs, Dujarric told a regular press briefing.
The world organization and humanitarian partners have been seeking access to the affected areas for weeks.
More than 800,000 people are already in urgent need of assistance in Tigray, including about 96,000 Eritrean refugees and nearly 600,000 people who were relying on food aid, humanitarians said.
About 46,000 people fled into Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency reported earlier in the week.
The pact announced by UN officials will allow relief into government-controlled areas of Tigray.
The Ethiopian conflict has forced more than 45,000 refugees to flee into Sudan, displaced many more within Tigray and worsened suffering in a region where 600,000 people already depended on food aid even before hostilities broke out on November 4.
Four Ethiopian employees of two foreign aid agencies were killed in a camp for Eritrean refugees in Tigray last month, a humanitarian and a diplomatic source said.
Also, food is said to be running out for 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray who have fled repression in their own country, and medics in Mekelle are falling short of painkillers, gloves and bodybags, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory after the fall of Mekelle on Saturday, but there has has been little verifiable information from the highland city of 500,000 people since.
TPLF leaders fled for the hills, from where they say they continue to fight.
Abiy, who hails from the larger Oromo and Amharic ethic groups, calls the Tigrayan leaders criminals opposing national unity and plotting attacks in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.
Federal police blamed the TPLF, without proof, for a small blast in the capital on Wednesday that injured an officer lightly. There was no immediate response from the TPLF.
"Wars are not like taps that you turn on and then turn off. This is going to be a very long, drawn-out process," Horn of Africa expert Rashid Abdi told an online forum.
(with inputs from agencies)