The World Food Program said its first aid convoy arrived in the war-torn Tigray region on Wednesday since a landmark peace deal was signed between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels.
Restoring aid to Tigray was a key part of the deal signed in South Africa to silence guns in the two-year conflict that has killed scores and sparked a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia.
“The @WFP convoy has just entered north-western #Tigray for the first time via the #Gondar corridor,” the UN agency said on Twitter, with a spokeswoman for AFP telling it was the first convoy since the ceasefire agreement 2.
The WFP announcement followed Tuesday’s arrival of an International Committee of the Red Cross medical aid convoy, the first ICRC trucks to arrive in Tigray since the deal between the Ethiopian government and the People’s Liberation Front of Tigray (TPLF).
The WFP spokeswoman said 15 trucks entered the region on Wednesday, with “more (expected) in the coming days”.
The agency said the convoy traveled along a route through neighboring Amhara for the first time since June 2021, when TPLF fighters recaptured Tigray from federal forces and expanded into the adjacent Amhara and Afar regions.
“Other food, nutrition and medical cargo will follow shortly, by any means possible,” WFP said on Twitter.
The Nov. 2 agreement was followed on Saturday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi by an implementation agreement in which both sides pledged to facilitate unhindered humanitarian access to “all those in need” in Tigray and neighboring regions, effective immediately.
Tigray, a region of six million people, suffers from severe food and medicine shortages and limited access to basic services like electricity, banking and communications, with the UN warning many people are on the brink of starvation.
Aid was halted in August when fighting resumed in northern Ethiopia, shattering a five-month truce and leading to the capture of key towns in Tigray by pro-government forces.
– threat of sanctions –
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to honor commitments made in the peace deal, saying his government has secured 100 percent of what it sought in negotiations with the TPLF.
In addition to restoring aid and a cessation of hostilities, the agreement reached in the South African capital of Pretoria calls for the disarmament of TPLF fighters and the restoration of federal authority over Tigray.
But it makes no mention of the presence on Ethiopian soil or a possible withdrawal of Eritrean troops who have supported Abiy’s forces and are accused of atrocities.
A senior State Department official told reporters Tuesday that the United States would not hesitate to apply sanctions “should it become necessary to hold actors accountable for human rights abuses or to ensure compliance with this agreement.”
The conflict between the TPLF and pro-Abiy forces – which include the Eritrean army and regional militias – has displaced more than two million people from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.
War broke out in November 2020 when Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent troops to Tigray and accused the TPLF of attacking federal army camps.
The TPLF had dominated national politics for almost three decades until Abiy took office in 2018.
