“While hostilities have largely ceased in boundary areas with Eritrea, from North-Western to Eastern Zones, since March, access to these areas is often denied.”
Source: OCHA
Ethiopia
OCHA says that the overall security situation in Tigray region remains highly complex and fluid. Ongoing active hostilities are highly mobile, mostly in rural areas, hindering planning and expanding humanitarian operations. While hostilities have largely ceased in boundary areas with Eritrea, from North-Western to Eastern Zones, since March, access to these areas is often denied.
Violence and attacks against civilians, including humanitarian workers, continue. Last Friday, a humanitarian worker working with an international non-governmental organization was killed in a cross-fire during an attack outside the Government building in Adigrat Town, Eastern Zone. Since the start of the conflict, nine aid workers have been killed in Tigray, all Ethiopian nationals.
Levels of food insecurity and malnutrition remain alarming. Twenty-one per cent of more than 21,000 children under age 5 screened for malnutrition last week were identified with severe wasting, alarmingly above the emergency 15 per cent threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health facilities continue to receive and treat survivors of gender-based violence throughout the region, with 1,288 official cases reported between February and April. The reported numbers greatly underestimate the actual cases, as underreporting is widespread.
From 27 March to 31 May, UN agencies and partners reached more than 2.8 million people out of the targeted 5.2 million people with food assistance. To date, about 430,000 people, which is only 15 per cent of the targeted 3 million people, have been reached with emergency shelter and non-food items.
Humanitarian partners are gradually scaling up the response, but not yet keeping pace with the mounting needs, due to a combination of access constraints, insufficient communications capacity, bureaucratic impediments, and lack of funding.