Addis Ababa April 30, 2022(Walta) – The Government of Ethiopia has called on the international community to increase its level of humanitarian aid delivery as the current supply is inadequate.
In his weekly press briefing, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Dina Mufti said the government has created a conducive atmosphere for delivery of the humanitarian supplies following the truce declared by the government last month.
The truce has enabled humanitarian operators to get access to the region via road transport and allowed continuous daily humanitarian flights, he added.
“The humanitarian truce which was announced by the Ethiopian government in March 2022 has created a conducive atmosphere for the delivery of the humanitarian supplies. So far 146 convoys, which include nine fuel tankers, have arrived in Tigray.”
Despite unfettered access to humanitarian supplies in the Tigray region and other areas, the spokesperson noted that there have been shortages of aid supplies from the donor communities since the magnitude of the needy communities has become significant.
“The donor communities are recently in dire straits and this will affect the supply since there are a large number of beneficiaries. The number of people in the country is increasing not only in the war but also in drought and because of other reasons,” Dina stated.
Since there is a shortage of resources as compared to the number of people in need of assistance, the spokesperson said the Ethiopian government encourages the international community to scale up support in this regard.
Speaking on the provocative acts of the TPLF since the declaration of the humanitarian truce, Dina noted that the terrorist group is still in control of various areas in Afar and the Amhara regions.
Even if the TPLF announced the withdrawal of its forces from the Amhara and Afar regions and the international media echoed these, they are all lies amplified without cross-checking the facts, he revealed.
The truth is that the TPLF forces have only withdrawn from a few areas of Eribti, Berehale, and Abala town; while maintaining control of the surrounding areas of Abala that affect the aid corridor, Dina elaborated.
“Contrary to the allegations of the TPLF and its sympathizers, the amount of aid supplied to the Tigray region has never been limited by the Ethiopian government,” according to the spokesperson.
As a result, Ethiopia expects the international community to explicitly demand that the TPLF withdraw from all of the occupied Afar and Amhara regions, he stressed.