First convoy delivering aid since Ethiopia peace deal enters Tigray

The World Food Programme has said that its first aid convoy arrived in Ethiopia's Tigray region on Wednesday following the signing of a truce earlier this month calling for unhindered humanitarian access to the war-torn northern region.

According to the WFP, its trucks had entered northwestern Tigray via the city of Gondar following an African Union mediated agreement signed in South Africa on November 2. The peace agreement hopes to silence the guns in the two-year conflict between government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

"For the first time since June 2021, a United Nations World Food Programme convoy arrived at Mai Tsebri, Tigray, via the Gondar route. Critical food relief will now be delivered to communities in Mai Tsebri town in the coming days. The convoy included 15 trucks, loaded with 300 tonnes of food for communities in the town," WFP said in a statement.

"WFP has trucks en route through all corridors and with the hopes that daily road deliveries can continue in order to resume operations at scale. This is the first convoy movement since the peace agreement was signed."

The ceasefire agreement also called for the restoration of services to Tigray, although the United Nation said that the region still does not have access to internet, phone and banking services.

The UN food body said that there are several flights planned in the coming days to provide urgent support and deploy the staff needed for the response.

WFP also stressed that the entire humanitarian community needs these passenger and cargo flights to resume as soon as possible to rotate humanitarian workers in and out of the region and deliver lifesaving medical and nutrition supplies.

The semi-autonomous region of six million people has been suffering from a severe lack of food and medicine, as well as limited access to basic services including electricity, banking and communications, with the UN warning that many people were on the brink of starvation.

Delivery of aid to the region was forced to a halt in late August when fighting resumed in northern Ethiopia, shattering a five-month truce and leading to the capture of key towns in Tigray by pro-government forces.

After the peace deal was signed in South Africa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed to fulfil the commitments made in the agreement, saying that his government secured 100 percent of what it had sought in the negotiations with the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

In a speech to Ethiopia's House of the People's Representatives on Tuesday, Ahmed said that for the sake of Ethiopia's peace and prosperity, the government made the choice to end the war.

"There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace, war is bad regardless of who wins. You kill people and spit out funds. Peace is always desirable," Ahmed said.