Addis Ababa, Dec 12 (AFP/APP):The first international aid convoy arrived Saturday in the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region since fighting broke out more than a month ago, triggering a refugee crisis and humanitarian disaster. The International Committee of the Red Cross said seven trucks brought medicines and medical equipment for 400 wounded as well as relief supplies to Mekele, a city of half a million that had been all-but cut off to foreign aid since the conflict began on November 4. “It is the first international aid to arrive in Mekele since fighting erupted in Tigray more than one month ago,” the Geneva-based ICRC said, describing health care facilities in the city as “paralysed”. Patrick Youssef, ICRC regional director for Africa, said the supplies would “reduce those impossible life-or-death triage decisions” for doctors and nurses in Mekele who had endured for weeks without running water and electricity, let alone essential medicines. The convoy arrived as the United Nations expressed growing alarm over the plight of nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray and appealed for urgent access to assist them and 600,000 others dependent on food rations. Ethiopia had restricted access to Tigray, and a communications blackout has made it difficult … Continue reading The First International Aid Arrived in Ethiopia