The World Food Programme (WFP) has called on the Tigrayan Authorities to return the fuel stocks they ‘forcibly seized’ on Wednesday.
According to the UN entity, a group of armed men entered its compound in Mekelle and seized 12 tankers filled with over half a million litres of fuel.
WFP, in a statement, said without fuel it is now impossible to distribute food, fertilisers, medicines, and other emergency supplies in Tigray.
‘It also prevents us from powering generators and vehicles, so that WFP and humanitarian partners can meet the needs of the vulnerable populations of Tigray, where an estimated 5.2 million people face severe hunger’, WFP’s Executive Director, David Beasley, said in the statement.
‘The loss of this fuel will push communities in Tigray, already struggling with the impacts of the conflict, further towards the brink of starvation’.
Beasley added, ‘We demand the Tigrayan Authorities return these fuel stocks to the humanitarian community immediately. As the next harvest is not until October, our deliveries of life-saving food could not be more urgent or critical to the survival of millions’.
Millions of people have been displaced since fighting between federal troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) broke out in November 2020, leaving almost 40 percent of Tigrayans food insecure.
Reports of fresh offensives were followed by Ethiopia’s air force announcing it had downed a plane carrying weapons for the TPLF.
The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the rebels have accused each other of undermining efforts to peacefully resolve the fighting in Africa’s second most populous nation.
In his response to the renewed fighting, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said he was ‘deeply shocked’, appealing for an ‘immediate cessation of hostilities and for the resumption of peace talks’.
Ethiopia continues to face one of the worst droughts it has experienced in the past four decades as about 225,000 malnourished children now need urgent nutrition support.
Photo source: ICRC
