Refugees International Welcomes Opening Aid into Tigray and Encourages All Parties to Allow Access

By Sarah Miller | March 25, 2022

Please see below statement from Refugees International Senior Fellow Sarah Miller:

“The humanitarian blockade since June of 2021 has been devastating for Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. While fighting, widespread human rights violations, sexual violence, atrocities, and displacement have been rampant across the country, Tigray has seen the worst of the conflict. Famine deaths are mounting—particularly among children, the sick and the elderly—as the vast majority of trucks stocked with humanitarian aid remain unable to enter the region.

Refugees International welcomes yesterday’s announcement that humanitarian aid will immediately be allowed into Tigray. Unfettered access of aid, including food and medicine, as well as the restoration of communications is desperately needed, and has been needed for more than a year. Yet we have seen promises for access before, and donors, diplomats, and the UN must hold all parties to account on this promise by closely monitoring the implementation of this new agreement.

The people of all regions in Ethiopia deserve full access to their rights, and humanitarian actors must be able to reach all parts of Ethiopia to deliver aid according to need.”

For press inquiries, please contact Refugees International’s VP for Strategic Outreach Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org.

PHOTO CAPTION: Ethiopian refugees who fled Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict arrive by bus from Village Eight transit centre near the Ethiopian border at the entrance of Um Raquba refugee camp in Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state, on December 11, 2020 (Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)