US calls on Ethiopia for “unrestricted access to fuel” in Tigray region

U.S. authorities have demanded Wednesday from Ethiopia an “unrestricted access to fuel” in the Tigray region (north) to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict unleashed in November 2020.

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has highlighted that the U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, and the ambassador to the country, Tracey Jacobson, have visited several warehouses with food in the capital of Tigray, Mekelle.

“All this emergency aid is ready to be distributed by Catholic Relief to Ethiopians in need in the Tigray region, but aid workers are awaiting the arrival of fuel to transport it,” he explained.

Thus, he stressed that “thanks to the collaboration of all those involved, the warehouses of USAID partners in the Tigray region are full of food and other vital aid.”

“Humanitarian workers need unrestricted access to fuel, cash and utilities to transport it to those in need and continue saving lives,” the U.S. Embassy has said through a series of messages posted on its official account on the social networking site Twitter.

The messages have been published in the framework of a visit to Mekelle by Hammer and the European Union envoy for the Horn of Africa region, Annette Weber, who on Tuesday encouraged the start of dialogue and “reaching a lasting peace” between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

The conflict in Ethiopia erupted following a TPLF attack on the main army base in Mekelle, after which the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered an offensive against the group following months of tensions at the political and administrative level. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of impeding the delivery of aid.

The TPLF accuses Abiy of whipping up tensions since his arrival in power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition since 1991, the ethnically-supported Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it saw as an attempt to undermine its influence.