UN, Ethiopia sign deal for humanitarian access to Tigray

This will allow the first aid to the region of 6 million people that has been cut off during fighting that began a month ago between the federal and Tigray regional governments

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray arrive on the banks of the Tekeze River on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020.

The United Nations says it and Ethiopia’s government have signed a deal to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the embattled Tigray region, at least the parts under federal government control.

This will allow the first aid to the region of 6 million people that has been cut off during fighting that began a month ago between the federal and Tigray regional governments. Each regards the other as illegal in a power struggle that has been months in the making.

For weeks, the U.N. and others have pleaded for aid access amid reports of food, medicines and other supplies running out.

A U.N. humanitarian spokesman says the first mission to carry out a needs assessment begins on Wednesday.