Sharjah24 – AFP: The desperate need for food aid in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region will persist into 2022 because the harvest is set to fail, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warns. "The harvest which has recently been planted is likely only to produce between a quarter and maximum a half of its likely production", he says.
Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, "This war has to stop. This war has to end. We will, all of us, continue to try to make sure that those 100 trucks a day reach Mekele, reach the beneficiaries. We will do everything we can to help the people affected in Amhara and Afar, while continuing the work in other parts of Ethiopia."
He continued, "Ethiopia is going through a very high degree of rhetoric. Humanitarian officials and aid workers are being condemned in public and in social media. I think I’ve spoken on the record about this and I spoke to those leaders that I mentioned that any such criticisms need to stop. First of all, it threatens the lives of people who are there to help, and secondly of course, it has an impact on humanitarian delivery."
"They need food, the harvest which has recently been planted is likely only to produce between a quarter and maximum a half of its likely production. So, the need for food is going to go right through until next year," he concluded.
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