WHO Says Could Bring Aid Into Tigray In 'Coming Days'

The World Health Organization voiced hope Monday that its life-saving assistance would arrive in Ethiopia's war-ravaged Tigray region in the next few days after the warring sides agreed to facilitate humanitarian access.

Ethiopia's government and Tigrayan rebels agreed on Saturday to facilitate immediate humanitarian access to "all in need" in Tigray, as part of a deal reached at the start of the month to end the brutal two-year conflict in the northern region.

Asked when the aid was expected to arrive, the WHO told AFP in an email that "we hope to be able to access all the people in need in the area in the coming days".

The UN health agency said it hoped to "be able to provide them with food, lifesaving medicines, resupply the health centres with medical equipment, provide children with vital routine immunization, (and) respond to worsening disease outbreaks."

"People need urgent aid to be delivered to prevent further death and suffering," it said.

Ethiopia's northernmost region -- home to some six million people -- is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis due to a lack of food and medicine, and there is limited access to basic services including electricity, banking, and communications.

The conflict between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and pro-government forces, which include regional militias and the Eritrean army, has caused an untold number of deaths, forced more than two million people from their homes, and driven hundreds of thousands to their brink of famine in Tigray.