UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Reuters) – United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths on Tuesday said he suspected famine had set in in Ethiopian Tigray, where a “de facto blockade” was near month has limited aid deliveries to 10% of what is needed in the war-torn region.

Griffiths told Reuters in an interview that his request was simple: “Get these trucks moving.”

“It’s man-made, it can be fixed by the act of government,” he said.

War erupted 10 months ago between federal Ethiopian troops and forces loyal to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), which controls Tigray. Thousands of people have died and more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes.

“We predicted that there were 400,000 people in near starvation conditions, at risk of starvation, and the assumption was that if no help was given to them adequately, they would fall into starvation,” said Griffiths, referring to a UN assessment in June. Read more

“I have to assume something like this is happening,” he said, adding that it was difficult to know exactly what the situation was on the ground in Tigray due to a de facto blockade of aid. and lack of fuel, cash and trucks.

Ethiopia’s UN mission in New York said “any claim that a blockade exists is baseless.” He said aid groups “were facing a shortage of trucks due to the non-return of almost all trucks that traveled to Tigray to deliver aid.”

Truck drivers transporting aid in Tigray have been shot at least twice and some Tigrayan drivers have been arrested in the neighboring Afar region, although they were later released, according to reports from the ‘UN.

MALNUTRITION

Griffiths said many trucks are entering Tigray and not returning, compounding humanitarian problems. He said no tanker had entered Tigray since the end of July.

“First of all, they probably don’t have fuel to go out,” he said. “And second, they may not want to, so the consequences for humanitarian operations – whatever the cause – are problematic.”

The United Nations in Ethiopia said on September 16 that only 38 of the 466 trucks that entered Tigray since July 12 had returned. On Tuesday, Ethiopia’s World Food Program (WFP) posted on Twitter that 61 commercial trucks had left Tigray in recent days and that they expected more to leave in the coming weeks.

“We will continue to work with transporters to overcome any logistical challenges to ensure trucks are on the road, thus facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid,” WFP Ethiopia said.

In Tigray, the United Nations says 5.2 million people, or 90% of the population, need help.

According to the United Nations, screening of children under 5 in the first half of September revealed that 22.7% of them suffer from malnutrition and more than 70% of the estimated 11,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women. acute malnutrition.

“For comparison, these are roughly the same levels of malnutrition we saw in 2011 in Somalia at the start of the Somali famine,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths said 100 trucks of aid a day were needed to get to Tigray, but only 10% had been able to get there in the past three months.

“We need the Ethiopian government to do what it has promised to do, which is to facilitate access,” said Griffiths, who met Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen last week at the annual gathering of UN world leaders in New York.

Mekonnen assured him access is improving, but Griffiths said “it still needs to improve a lot”.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols; edited by Grant McCool

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