Ethiopia – Tigray: What’s changed in one week since declared truce?

The fighting has killed thousands and devastated the country’s infrastructure, while reports of rampant human rights abuses including gang rapes, mass killings and torture have drawn sharp international condemnation.

No aid has entered Tigray by road since 14 December amid what the UN has described as a “de facto” government blockade, which has severed banking services and telecoms across the region.

The US, the United Nations and European Union welcomed the truce announcement. For its part, the TPLF said it would observe a “cessation of hostilities” if aid was allowed into the region.

“The Government of Tigray will do everything it can to make sure that this cessation of hostilities is a success,” it said. “We call on the Ethiopian authorities to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unfettered humanitarian access to Tigray.”