Includes medicines and medical equipment

The entry of the first international aid convoy to the capital of Tigray

The Ethiopian government distributes aid in Alamata.

A.F.B.

An international aid convoy arrived in Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region, yesterday, for the first time since the start of a military operation by the Ethiopian Federal Army, more than a month ago, while the United Nations fears for the fate of Eritrean refugees in this region, and the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that the convoy consisted of seven Trucks, containing medicines and medical equipment to treat more than 400 wounded, and materials to treat common and chronic diseases.

This aid will be provided to the main hospital in Mekele, which had a population of 500,000 before the start of the fighting, and to the local health office and the Ethiopian Red Cross pharmacy in the city.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, launched this operation, on the fourth of November, to expel the local leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which had challenged his authority for months. On the 28th of the same month, he announced control of Mikkeli and the end of the operations. Fighting.

The international community is calling for access to the Tigray region, which has been isolated from the world since the start of the military operation, to deliver aid to it, and even before the outbreak of the fighting, 600,000 people, including 96,000 Eritrean refugees, were totally dependent on food aid.

"This convoy of medical aid will allow the replenishment of stocks, help the sick, and reduce the number of difficult choices between life and death," said the Regional Director for Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross, Patrick Youssef.

In turn, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health distributed medicines and medical equipment to health facilities in Mekele, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Ethiopian government also distributed food aid in the city of Alamata.

Nearly 50,000 Tigrayans fled to neighboring Sudan, and an unknown number of people were displaced within Ethiopia.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that the four Eritrean refugee camps in Tigray are still inaccessible.

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