The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the northern Tigray region, has denied claims by the Ethiopian government that it was preventing aircraft carrying aid from landing at the airport in the regional capital, Mekelle.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said in a tweet on Thursday that the group had “run out of fuel” to operate the airport and accused the government of continuing “to enforce a near-total ban on the entry of fuel” there.
“What the authorities in Addis are blowing this temporary problem out of proportion to deflect attention away from the bloody carnage and generated crisis that is claiming the lives of thousands of civilians in Oromia, Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, and other parts of the country,” Mr. Getachew said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, the Government Communication Service (GCS) accused the TPLF of preventing aid planes from landing at the airport.
The government said the daily supply of medicines, medical supplies, and nutritious food for children that it was facilitating had thus been suspended indefinitely.
On Monday, the European Union asked Ethiopia to open an additional corridor to deliver more humanitarian aid to Tigray.
The country’s civil war that broke out in November 2020 in Tigray has left millions of people in need of humanitarian aid.
The government declared a humanitarian truce in March so that aid could be delivered.
