WFP Affirms Strong Partnership With Ethiopia To Meet Immediate Humanitarian Needs In Tigray (February 7, 2021)

The World Food Programme (WFP) affirms the need for strong partnership between the government of Ethiopia and the entire humanitarian community to rapidly scale up a collective response to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of people in Tigray.

WFP announced preparations to provide humanitarian assistance with a budget of 400 US Dollars to the people in need of support in Tigray region.

There have been recent positive engagements with the Government of Ethiopia by senior UN officials, including the Under-Secretary General for Safety and Security, the High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, WFP said in a statement.

“These engagements have acknowledged the commendable measures being undertaken by the Government and partners to address humanitarian needs in Tigray. They have also concluded that humanitarian assistance must be expanded and intensified without delay.” the statement says.

WFP commends the emergency food assistance that the Government and partners have already provided to the people of Tigray since the onset of the crisis, reaching almost 1.7 million people with emergency food distributions. 26,000 Eritrean refugees residing in two camps have also received food and nutrition assistance.

WFP has indicated to the Government its readiness to add to these efforts and has accordingly accepted requests from the Government to augment the transportation capacity of the Government and partners to deliver humanitarian assistance into and within Tigray, especially in

WFP will continue to provide food assistance to Eritrean refugees in Tigray region, working closely with the Government’s Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs and the UN Refugee Agency.

WFP will also continue to procure and deliver food supplies on behalf of the Government, including 300,000 metric tons of wheat scheduled for delivery from February.

So far 1.8 million of people in need in the Tigray Region have received humanitarian support.

The government of Ethiopia stated there is a supply stock in Mekele City to support 2.5 Million people for the next two months.

WFP Director Dr.  David Beasley, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ethiopia, Catherine Sozi along with Ethiopian Peace Minister, Muferihat Kamil have observed the humanitarian activities in Tigray.