aid agencies are raising concerns about
the dire humanitarian situation
that has resulted from the conflict in
ethiopia's tigray region
they report that civilians are dying
from a lack of health care services
while survivors face food and water
shortages
thousands have died and more than 300
000 people
have fled their homes since the war
began in november 2020.
let's talk more about this with chris
meltzer senior external relations
officer with the unhcr in ethiopia hello
chris
welcome to the program now i understand
you just arrived from
tigre um tell us more about the
situation on the ground
well it's a dire situation for all the
people there not only the refugees
but we have to decide between the
northern part of tigray and the southern
part of tigris in the summer part of
tigre
the refugees were neglected
they had no food they still have no
clean water
but at least they were not in the center
of the combat in the northern part we
still have no access
so we can't really say we can't couldn't
see with our own eyes
what's going on there but all the
reports we're receiving from refugees
and from other people they are very
disturbing
i mean it's it's it's a bit disturbing
hearing that you do not have access to
actually help the people in need
but from what you know what what agent
help do the people need
to survive well the first thing is of
course
food and clean water we were able to
distribute together with our
very important partner the word food
program food for the two southern camps
so for some ten thousands of refugees
but there are still at least twenty
thousand refugees in the north and
they have indeed no food and no access
to any help
uh and we have even heard that they are
eating tree bark
out of desperation wow
i i don't even know what what response
to give to that
and and when you're saying you don't
have access to actually
give support what then is the government
doing why is the government blocking aid
first of all and
if they are what are they doing
well the government is our partner and
ethiopia is a sovereign country
so whatever we're doing here we need the
approval of
of the government of course it's for us
always too slow
always too little this is how refugee
agency is a relief agency
the government itself needs time to
to get approval of something um but we
hope it's getting better and at least we
have now to two of the four camps access
but of course we want to have access to
all refugees because
they are really in a dire situation and
they need definitely help
so considering how dire the situation is
how long can this go for
for those that are suffering can they go
without enough food and enough
portable water
well we hope that we can uh provide for
the two southern camps
food in these days maybe maybe even
today or tomorrow
so the the convoy is on the way um and
also since there are no devastations
from the from the
from the conflict uh we also think that
the infrastructure is good enough
to provide clean water very soon for the
two southern camps
but again this we really have to
distinguish here with the two southern
of the two northern camps so the
situation around the city of
uh of shiree this is very desperate
and we just have no idea
when we will have access to the refugees
when we can finally go
20 seconds do you are you confident that
there's light at the end of the tunnel
otherwise i would be wrong in this job
yes there is light at the end of the
tunnel because it's getting better
every day but it's of course too slow
and for the refugees every day every
hour counts
okay chris meltzer senior external
relations officer with the unhcr
in ethiopia many thanks for your
insights