The International Committee of the Red Cross said seven trucks brought medicines and medical equipment for 400 wounded as well as relief supplies to Mekelle, a city of half a million which has been all-but cut off to foreign aid since the conflict began on 4 November.
"It is the first international aid to arrive in Mekele since fighting erupted in Tigray more than one month ago," the Geneva-based ICRC said, describing health care facilities in the city as "paralysed".
Patrick Youssef, ICRC regional director for Africa, said the supplies would "reduce those impossible life-or-death triage decisions" for doctors and nurses in Mekelle who had endured for weeks without running water or electricity, let alone essential medicines.
"Civilians should not be targeted. The laws of war must be implemented." Patrick Youssef, ICRC Deputy Regional Director for Africa. pic.twitter.com/AgoVm6YDEq
— ICRC Africa (@ICRC_Africa) December 5, 2016
Alarm at United Nations
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday it still has not been able to reach four camps housing nearly 100,000 Eritreans since the announcement of a major military offensive by Ethiopia's army against forces loyal to Tigray's dissident ruling party more than a month ago.
The United Nations expressed growing alarm over the refugees in Tigray and appealed for urgent access to assist them and 600,000 others who were dependent on food rations before the conflict even began.
Ethiopia restricted access to Tigray, and a communications blackout has made it difficult to evaluate the true extent of the humanitarian situation on the ground. But aid groups have been warning for weeks of a looming hunger crisis as food rations dwindled, and efforts to send life-saving relief were repeatedly delayed.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday said his government would be in charge of handling the humanitarian response and access to Tigray, and that Ethiopia had this week dispatched tonnes of food and other relief supplies by trucks to Mekelle and other cities in the region.
Ethiopia has bridled at suggestions that outsiders might play a leading role in the relief effort and an agreement last week to allow the UN and aid agencies access to Tigray foundered, deepening international alarm, before another deal was announced on Wednesday.
