Ethiopia: Only 21 WFP trucks has entered the Tigray Region since the “humanitarian truce”

Tigray media activists say no humanitarian aid has entered Tigray region after the 21 WFP trucks for which there was huge media coverage, accuses PM Abiy’s regime of using this method of releasing trucks to ease IC pressure, but maintains deadly siege on the region” (Morad News, 05.04.2022).

Since 24th March there has only been 21 World Food Programme (WFP) trucks and that’s been about 12 days. The Tigray region needs massively more from the aid organization to help the ones in need after the humanitarian blockade that been steadily going on since November 2020. It is not like the 21 trucks could even patch the hurt. That is only a tear-drop in an ocean of need.

The ones celebrating these returning is doing it early. They only entered to create some fancy headlines. Just like the Press Release on the 24th March and the follow-up. While we know the stakeholders of the conflict haven’t been participating in the announcement. That was only done to foil the international community and make it seem peaceful. Alas, it couldn’t be further from the case.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) or the Federal Government only allowed in bare minimum and nothing has ever entered since. It was just a window of relief, which is barely that. Since, the reports of the amounts of which is really needed. Shows the 21 trucks isn’t it… and we all should know that.

The OCHA reports over the last year shows the endless needs for the Tigray region. Also in Afar region and parts of the Amhara region. These are part of war-zone and where the conflict has been during civil-war. That is just the mere reality here and this is why you know the “humanitarian truce” wasn’t legit when none was talked to or engaged with.

The Prosperity Party and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali still have grievances towards the leadership of Mekelle. He wouldn’t allow a free flow of aid or humanitarian convoys in the area. The PM and the Federal Government has already weaponized food-security and is happily serving food insecurity to innocent civilians within Tigray region. That’s why we know the WFP is only coming in with breadcrumbs… when they need a bakery to built and spread the produced breads across the region yesterday.

That is why the “Humanitarian Truce” is a lie. This is not legit. It is only done to create some friendly headlines. Hoping some senators or representatives isn’t sanctioning or suddenly ceasing some bilateral agreements with the regime in Addis Ababa.

We know they have initiated and successfully achieved the creation of a man-made famine, possible large scale starvation and people dying of lack of nutrition. As well, as the lack of basic necessities as water and electricity. The hospitals doesn’t have medicines or the ability to cater to the sick. That’s all been a deliberate scheme to hurt the region and everyone for being under control by a defiant party – Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Which has been vilified beyond recognition and the justification for that… is their past transgressions, which the TPLF should answer for in the courts. Not by starving and killing this generation Tigrayans. That’s just show this is a collective punishment and not targeting the ones who did things in the past.

Alas, Abiy and PP has ensured that they will be remembered for this bloodshed. The massacres of Western Tigray, the looting and destruction of the region as a whole. And taking away on generation opportunity to get a better life. Just because one party didn’t decide to join the new formation of the Prosperity Party after the end of the coalition EPRDF.

21 trucks isn’t enough. Everyone knows that. It is just a beginning and hardly even that. When the numbers are so vast and the amount of people lacking food is enormous. Peace.

Ethiopia: ICRC resumes aid convoys to Tigray after six months (03.04.2022)

The ICRC convoy carried medicines, medical equipment, emergency food, water pumps and water treatment chemicals, along with essential household items.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 3, 2022 – An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy carrying medical assistance, food and water treatment supplies arrived in the Tigray region on Saturday, 2nd April 2022, through Afar. This is the first ICRC convoy reaching the region by road since September 2021.

“Many people affected by the conflict in Tigray live in extremely challenging conditions, unable to access healthcare, sufficient food supplies, and basic goods and services,” said Nicolas Von Arx, the head of the ICRC delegation in Ethiopia. “In addition, a lack of medication and medical equipment has placed enormous strain on the region’s health-care system and medical staff.”

“The ICRC welcomes the current ceasefire and the willingness of the parties to the conflict to facilitate passage of much-needed humanitarian aid into Tigray,” he added. “It is vital that the assistance keeps reaching the region on a regular basis.”

The ICRC convoy carried medicines, medical equipment, emergency food, water pumps and water treatment chemicals, along with essential household items such as jerricans, solar lamps, mattresses and kitchen sets.

Prior to the convoy’s arrival, the ICRC conducted almost 40 cargo flights into Tigray since January, delivering life-saving drugs such as insulin, hemodialysis, oxytocin, tetanus toxoid, gloves and surgical material.

Meanwhile, in Afar region, 9,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) recently received food delivered by the ICRC, including wheat flour, split peas, salt and oil. A further 9,000 IDPs in Afar are currently being assisted with emergency household items.

South Sudan: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Urgent funding needed to address the humanitarian needs of 6.8 million people in South Sudan in 2022 (31.03.2022)

Ethiopia: The FDRE will blame the enemy no matter what… [Humanitarian Truce 2.0]

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia or the Government of Ethiopia will target the enemy or enemies, because we know the Prosperity Party and ruler Abiy Ahmed Ali have no interest in accountability or transparency. This man only like positive publicity while we are not supposed speak of the ill.

We are supposed to believe this recent “Humanitarian Truce” which was announced out of nowhere. It has been days and no sort of humanitarian convoy has reached, been close or even gotten the pictured in Mekelle. No, there has been no proof of it and only empty words.

This is empty suits of Addis Ababa who thinks they can trick the world after holding a tight grip on the Tigray Region since November 2020. We are are now in the end of March 2022 and soon April 2022. Therefore, the months are running, the seeds are not put in the soil and the man-made famine is prepared yet again. The lack of food and nutrition. The hospitals running out of medicine and such too. The region is blocked from the phone-lines, water and electricity. That has been going on and nothing has been done.

While the Ethiopian government are blaming the Tigray Defence Force being in Amhara and Afar region. Meanwhile the Amhara Para-Military Group “Fano” and Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) have annexed Western Tigray. Which they have controlled since November 2020. It is not like they have left or ever leaved this part of the Tigray Region.

It is also reported that there been movement of troops to various border points of the region. This is a part of getting friendly headlines abroad. While they are preparing a new offensive against Tigray. That is how things are looking and the FDRE with their allies has done the same before. This isn’t a new trick, but repeating it in 2022.

The FDRE has weaponized humanitarian assistance and in general prepared a region to starve and die out of lacking food. A food insecurity that has been made with bureaucratic hurdles, road-blocks and all other tricks in the book. This has been made possible, because the will of regime is there to make it impossible.

This is why the recent press releases on the “Humanitarian Truce” is one sided. The FDRE never did talk to the stakeholders and never considered talking with the other parties. They are just blaming the enemy and not considering their own grievances. If there is supposed to be talks and negotiations. Then the FDRE would need to concede and give way to the regional state government of Tigray. However, that is not something there is any intentions of doing. Instead, their national dialogue and commission is hallow, if not “Hot Air” without any stipulations or participation of the ones that is needed to make it genuine.

That is why I believe this truce is made to prepare for a new offensive. Since, the FDRE is preparing the armies in the regions of the front-lines and not doing anything to ensure the humanitarian convoys could reach Tigray. Therefore, the Abiy regime is used to lie and this is a BIG FAT LIE. Peace.

Ethiopia: FDRE Government Communication Services – Statement by the Ethiopian Government on the Current Situation of Humanitarian Aid (29.03.2022)

Sudan: Consensus emerging on many issues, UN’s Sudan envoy tells Security Council (29.03.2022)

The African country has had no functioning government in place since the military coup d’état of 25 October 2021.

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 29, 2022 – The United Nations envoy for Sudan told the Security Council today that consensus has emerged on many issues towards establishing a functional government, warning that Khartoum could lose out on billions of external aid without such an administration.

“Unless the current trajectory is corrected, Sudan will head towards economic and security collapse as well as significant humanitarian suffering,” Volker Perthes, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, warned.

Political vacuum

The African country has had no functioning government in place since the military coup d’état of 25 October 2021.

Perthes, also the head of the UN’s transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), said the UN-led broad consultations on a political process – involving more than 800 participants from all parts of the country – have found “visible” consensus on many issues, including on the need to end the violence, establish a technocratic Government and an oversight body, and adopt critical legislation.

There was also wide-reaching agreement on the need to reconsider the role, size and membership of the Sovereignty Council, which was to have functioned as the collective head of state for a 39-month transitional period, scheduled to end in November 2022.

Points of agreement

The consultations also found common ground on a minimum of 40 per cent representation of women in transitional institutions, and on mechanisms to advance women’s rights.

Moreover, an overarching consensus emerged around the need for a single unified professional army, for the establishment of judicial entities, for the conditions for credible elections and for an inclusive constitutional process.

Going forward, he told the Security Council, the UN, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will jointly lead efforts to support Sudan’s political process, drawing on their respective strengths.  The intention is to facilitate an inclusive, Sudan-owned and Sudan-led political process.

New phase of talks

An intensive phase of talks is expected to start in the next couple of weeks with a view to a return to constitutional order and an empowered civilian-led government to steer Sudan through the transitional period.

“Time is not on Sudan’s side”, he warned, adding that Sudan could miss out on billions of external support, as disbursements from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other major donors have been paused, and will continue that way as long as no functional government is in place.

Ethiopia: Afar Federalist Diaspora Provisional Coordination Committee (AFDPCC) – Statement by Afar Federalist Diaspora Coordination Committe on the Ongoing Conflict (28.03.2022)

Ethiopia: Tigray External Affairs Office – Further Updates on the “Humanitarian Truce” (28.03.2022)

United Nations: As impact of drought worsens, growing risk of famine in Somalia (28.03.2022)

The situation has deteriorated, with the current drought wiping out crop harvests and livestock dying due to a lack of water and pasture, depriving many pastoral communities of their only source of income.

LUUQ, Somalia, March 28, 2022 – Standing in front of his makeshift home in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in southern Somalia’s Luuq district, Ahmad Hassan Yarrow looks out towards what remains of the Juba River and shakes his head forlornly.

Of all the droughts I have experienced in my 70 years, I have not seen anything as severe as this,” he says as he contemplates the scenery before him.

Mr. Yarrow is one of hundreds of thousands of Somalis displaced by the country’s most recent and worsening drought, leaving their homes in the search for food, water and shelter.

The Luuq district, located in the Federal Member State of Jubaland’s Gedo region, is intersected by the Juba River. For more than three months now, the river’s waters have steadily dwindled, leaving only brown puddles.

As the water evaporated, so did the hopes of local communities – made up mainly of farmers and pastoralists – which rely on the river for their livelihoods. Under a searing sun, their crops wilted and their livestock died, and, like many other Somalis around the country, the communities came a step closer to starvation.

We lost everything in the drought,” says Salado Madeer Mursaal, a 28-year-old mother of one, who has also sought help at the IDP camp. “We need food, shelter, water and other basic human needs.”

Risk of famine’

With decades of conflict, recurrent climate shocks and disease outbreaks, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the humanitarian situation in Somalia was already grave. Even before the current drought, an estimated 7.7 million Somalis were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year – up 30 per cent from one year.

The situation has deteriorated, with the current drought wiping out crop harvests and livestock dying due to a lack of water and pasture, depriving many pastoral communities of their only source of income.

The country has seen three consecutive failed rainy seasons. The fourth, which is supposed to start in April and continue through June, is also projected to be below average. If that happens, then we are looking at a risk of famine,” says the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula.

The United Nations and its implementing partners have been heavily engaged in providing humanitarian support. In February, they collectively reached 1.6 million people with assistance, but, with Somalia’s federal authorities, they are calling for more funds to provide urgent humanitarian assistance.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Somalia is currently one of the most severely drought-impacted country in the Horn of Africa. Some 4.5 million Somalis are directly affected by the drought, and about 700,000 people have been displaced.

Children are in an especially vulnerable position.

“As we speak now, 1.4 million children under five years of age are severely malnourished, and if we don’t step up our intervention, it is projected that 330,000 of them will be on the brink of death from severe acute malnutrition. The situation cannot be more dire than that,” says Mr. Abdelmoula, who also serves as the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Somalia and the UN Resident Coordinator.

So I call on all those who are able to contribute, including the Somali diaspora, the business community, the traditional and non-traditional donors, everyone, to act and to act now,” he adds.

In the 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, the United Nations seeks nearly $1.5 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 5.5 million of the country’s most vulnerable people, including 1.6 million IDPs, 3.9 million non-IDPs, and people with disabilities.

However, just about four per cent – $56.1 million – has been received so far.

Seeking safety and shelter

In Luuq’s camps, there is a palpable mix of relief and resignation among the displaced.

After walking for several days, Fatuma Madeer Mursaal and her family arrived at the Boyle IDP camp in Luuq. There, they joined the more than 4,000 people seeking aid.

We are farmers and we also had our livestock but all animals died in the drought. We have nothing left and we have come here for water, food, shelter and help,” says Ms. Mursaal, a 39-year-old mother of six.

The Boyle IDP camp is one of several camps which have sprung up around the country as desperate people move to locations where they hope they can access help.

It’s serious, and one of the biggest tragedies Somalia is facing today. The displaced communities have no shelter, water, medicine, or even food, and they depend on handouts. The drought has wiped out everything, and if the survivors don’t get urgent humanitarian assistance, they are likely to also die,” says the Luuq district’s local administrator, Commissioner Ali Kadiye Mohamed.

UN humanitarian agencies are working closely with implementing partners on the ground to alleviate the situation.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been trucking water into camps such as the Boyle IDP camp, as well as constructing water tanks and pit latrines to help improve sanitation conditions.

At the Luuq District Hospital, funded in part by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN agency is working with an Irish charity agency, Trocaire, to treat, feed and stabilize children admitted with severe malnutrition. Local staff say they have seen a worsening of the situation.

In January, 62 malnourished children were admitted here. In February, the number rose to 100, and as of 21 March, the number stands at 114,” said the hospital’s chief nurse, Abdirahman Mohamed Kasim.

As soon as these children get to the hospital,” he continues, “we give them milk for primary and secondary stages of malnutrition, and, after their recovery, we transfer them to other feeding centres where they receive high energy biscuits and treatments for any further illnesses.”

Elsewhere in Luuq, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is implementing cash and food voucher programmes for vulnerable groups, and providing preventative and curative nutrition support to women and children. The agency is scaling up its interventions, aiming to support 2.5 million people across Somalia with food and nutrition relief in the first half of this year, but – like so many other UN agencies – it can only do so if it receives more funding; in this instance, some $203 million to close a funding gap.

Ethiopia: Credible reports of a new offensive towards the Tigray region [and was the “Humanitarian Truce” a shield for international spin?]

There are now reports that on three fronts encircling the Tigray region. The Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) has sent soldiers by buses to re-group and strategically prepare to attack the Tigray region. The Tripartite Alliance has been silently awaiting the right time after leaving parts of the Tigray region last year.

In the “Survival Campaign” they entered the region, but didn’t continue to Mekelle or re-invade like they did in November 2020. Now in the end of March or early April it is maybe scheduled a new offensive to not only control Western Tigray. Which they have had under their reign and with the help of the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF).

The Amhara Para-Military Group “Fano” might return together with ENDF. Which wouldn’t shock anyone, as they have promised to defend the “motherland” and attack their enemies. The enemies being the Tigray.

If the reports are true… just like Ceasefire was announced as the state was losing grip and lost on the front-lines at the time. Now, they could use the headlines and news-cycles of positivity to shield itself from criticism. As the FDRE and ENDF could gear up on the borders for another way. Because, they have had the time train and re-structure the army. The reports are stating up to 230 buses has been directed from Dessie to Kobo. 

Since there have been no humanitarian convoy or any sign of aid to the Tigray region after the announcement. Neither, has there been any talks with the stakeholders or the ones in conflict. Meaning, it was an empty statement made for headlines and not the reality. To spin the news in positive favour and trying to overlook the realities on the ground, which is very dire … a man-made famine, starvation and people dying over lack of medicines. That is what the state has delivered the Tigray region for months upon end since November 2020. Therefore, as I suspected… it was a smoke-screen for something more sinister.

The FDRE and their allies was gearing for war. They are now sending troops and military equipment to different fronts. Preparing for another “campaign” or “offensive” to end the Tigray Defence Force… alas… that they have tried a few times already, but to no avail.

We should expect soon orders and a full scale attack on Tigray from the Tripartite Alliance. That is on the horizon and there will be another bloodshed in the name of the Peace Prize winning Prime Minister Ahmed Ali Abiy. Peace.