United Nations agencies are requesting financing to assist more than 33,000 individuals fleeing violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray area, fearing more than 200,000 could follow in six months, a representative for the world body stated.
On Friday, Stephane Dujarric, the representative for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said individuals are streaming into neighboring Sudan every day from Ethiopia’s conflict-affected northernmost area, reports Xinhua news organization.
The UN Refugee Agency assessed that up to 200,000 individuals could take refuge in eastern Sudan in the following six months if uncertainty in Tigray continues, Dujarric stated.
While the number of internally displaced individuals increases every day, the absence of access to those in need, combined with the inability to move relief supplies into the area, remain obstacles to delivering aid.
Prior this week the world organisation’s agencies set $75 million as essential to help the refugees and displaced till January.
Providing high-energy biscuits, hot meals and food rations, the World Food Programme (WFP), is likewise providing logistics support, setting up supply hubs to store supplies and through its UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is transporting humanitarian responders to impacted regions, he said.
The WFP needs to grow the number of UNHAS flights, and street repairs to permit responders to arrive at remote and inaccessible regions where refugees are arriving, the representative said.
The Unicef reports that around 45 percent of refugees are kids under 18 years of age and that since schools had already re-opened in Ethiopia, schooling has been interrupted, Dujarric stated.
Since the morning hours of November 4, the Ethiopian government has been undertaking military activities against The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The Ethiopian government has been accusing the TPLF, which was one of the four coalition fronts of the former ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF party), for planning different treasonous acts with an overall objective of destabilizing the East African country.
The mounting conflicts between the federal government and the TPLF were exacerbated in September this year when the Tigray regional government chose to proceed with its planned regional elections, which the Ethiopian parliament had previously delayed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
with IANSinputs
