Reuters[File Photo] Medicine and relief supplies from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ethiopian Red Cross are seen loaded onto trucks at the ICRC logistics centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia November 19, 2020. Picture taken November 19, 2020.[File Photo] Medicine and relief supplies from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ethiopian Red Cross are seen loaded onto trucks at the ICRC logistics centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia November 19, 2020.
The conflict has led to a de facto blockade that has lasted around two years, although some aid supplies reached communities between March and August during a temporary ceasefire which has since been broken. “In these situation of hardship and limited access, often death happens at a community level that goes underreported and unregistered,” said Altaf Musani, WHO Director of Health Emergencies Interventions, at a Geneva press briefing, describing the situation as “deeply worrying”.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a Tigrayan who lost his younger brother to a childhood disease, has been increasingly vocal about the health crisis there.