Khartoum | Conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region places 2.3 million children in need of emergency assistance and thousands more, who have fled to camps in Sudan, in a precarious situation, says Friday Unicef.
Tigray, a dissident province in northern Ethiopia, has been the scene of heavy fighting since the launch on November 4 of military operations by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, against the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) which leads the region. and has been challenging the authority of the federal government for several months.
Hundreds of people have been killed and, according to Sudanese authorities, 36,000 have crossed the border into Sudan.
“The communications blackout and travel restrictions in the Tigray region are preventing some 2.3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance from being reached,” said the director general of the United Nations Fund for Humanitarian Aid. childhood (Unicef), Henrietta Fore, in a statement released Friday.
The UN agency estimates that around “12,000 children, some without parents or families, are in refugee camps and registration centers and are at risk”.
Many of these makeshift camps in Sudan are overcrowded and the refugees live in unsanitary conditions with limited access to food and water.
“The living conditions for these children are extremely harsh. We are working with our partners to provide basic support in terms of health, food and water, ”says Ms. Fore.
“I call on all parties to the conflict to allow sustainable and unhindered access to all communities affected by war to be able to reach children and their families,” pleaded the director.
She also called for ensuring that children are not “recruited and used” in conflict.