War in Tigray: a WFP convoy joins Mekele after several months of blockade

Mekele, capital of Ethiopia's Tigray region in May 2021. © Sébastien Németh/RFI

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In Ethiopia, a humanitarian convoy was finally able to reach the province of Tigray.

Tigrayan insurgents have been in conflict for a year and a half against the government of Abiy Ahmed, and the region is under humanitarian blockade.

Since December 15, no convoy had been able to reach Tigray and its six million inhabitants. 

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With our correspondent in Addis Ababa,

This is a first in four months.

Twenty World Food Program (WFP) trucks reached the regional capital Mekele overnight from Friday to Saturday.

“

”, reacts a leader of the TPLF, the Tigrayan party.

Indeed, it follows the humanitarian truce announced by the insurgents and the government of Addis Ababa at the end of March.

A humanitarian truce whose outlines remain unclear and which was slow to materialize.

The 20 trucks, which carried 500 tons of food, are however only a drop in the bucket in the face of the dramatic situation affecting Tigray.

It would take a hundred a week, according to the United Nations, to help the more than five million people in need of food aid, not to mention the shortages of medicine and gasoline.

A question remains on everyone's lips when there are still no official peace talks: is this convoy the promise of a de-escalation in the long term, or once again, a simple short-term calculation? Ethiopian authorities?

► To read also: After a year of war in Tigray, Ethiopian power on the verge of wavering

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