{"id":7521,"date":"2021-09-29T19:20:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T19:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ethiopia\/?p=7521"},"modified":"2021-09-29T19:20:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T19:20:39","slug":"un-humanitarian-chief-calls-ethiopia-crisis-a-stain-on-our-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ethiopia\/all-news\/un-humanitarian-chief-calls-ethiopia-crisis-a-stain-on-our-conscience","title":{"rendered":"UN humanitarian chief calls Ethiopia crisis a \u2018stain on our conscience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n

\n

THE humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia is a \u201cstain on our conscience\u201d as people starve to death under a de facto blockade by the government, United Nations chief Martin Griffiths has said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Associated Press, the UN\u2019s emergency relief co-ordinator described the deprivation in the war-torn northern Tigray region, where the malnutrition rate is now over 22 per cent, comparing it to the Somali famine of 2011, which killed more than a quarter of a million people.<\/p>\n

He said he hoped that the 1980s Ethiopian famine, in which a million people perished, would not be repeated.<\/p>\n

Witnesses say that Ethiopian government forces and their allies have destroyed or looted limited food sources from diminishing harvests in the region since fighting began in November last year.<\/p>\n

And just 10 per cent of much-needed humanitarian supplies have been reaching Tigray in recent weeks, Mr Griffiths said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo people have been eating roots and flowers and plants instead of a normal steady meal,\u201d he said. \u201cThe lack of food will mean that people will start to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate interview with Reuters, Mr Griffiths implored: \u201cGet those [aid delivery] trucks moving. This is man-made, this can be remedied by the act of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ethiopia\u2019s UN mission in New York has knocked back claims of the existence of a blockade as baseless. It said that aid groups \u201cfaced a shortage in trucks as a result of the non-return of almost all trucks that travelled to Tigray to deliver aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Mr Griffiths said that the reason for the failure of trucks to return was likely due to the blockade of fuel deliveries in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the Ethiopian government to do what they promised to do, which is to facilitate access [of aid]\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n