UNITED NATIONS, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and partners have been able to move aid into Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region by road for the first time in more than three months, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
A convoy transporting 500 metric tons of food and nutrition supplies was moving into Tigray. This is the first time that the United Nations and partners have been able to move aid into Tigray by road since mid-December, said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Teams have also reached communities in the neighboring Afar region with desperately needed food assistance, he said.
"It is critical that we now see sustained deliveries of relief supplies, fuel and cash into Tigray, and the continued expansion of the response in conflict-affected areas in Afar and Amhara," Haq said. "Shortages of supplies, fuel and cash have severely undermined the ability of humanitarian organizations to respond to the increasingly acute situation in Tigray."
He said that only about 1.2 million people received food assistance in the past five-and-a-half months, compared with the target of humanitarians of reaching more than 5 million people every six weeks.
In the months without convoys into Tigray, humanitarian organizations flew in some essential items, the spokesman said.
Aid partners flew in nearly 40 metric tons of nutrition supplies to Tigray's regional capital of Mekelle, he said. Since late January, about 360 metric tons of primary medical and nutrition supplies have been flown in.
"Every bit helps. But a single convoy of 20 trucks could bring in more than twice this amount," he said.
Insecurity in Afar continues to restrict access to many people displaced by recent fighting. Assistance continues in the accessible areas, with the humanitarian partners providing food support to some 62,000 people during the past week, he said.
In Amhara, just to the south of Tigray, the global body and its nongovernmental organization partners distributed food to more than 726,000 people during the past week, said Haq. ■
