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WFP, a United Nations agency, helps coordinate humanitarian
assistance to Tigray, where a nearly two-year conflict has
killed thousands of people and left millions in need of aid.
The drone strike on Sunday hit near an area called Zana Woreda
in northwestern Tigray, the WFP spokesperson told Reuters.
"Flying debris from the strike injured a driver contracted by
WFP and caused minor damage to a WFP fleet truck," the
spokesperson said, adding it was not possible to say yet whether
further distributions would be suspended in the area.
Two humanitarian workers, who asked not to be named, told
Reuters that food distribution operations by another aid agency
had been disrupted by shelling in Tigray.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military
spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister's
spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, did not respond to requests for
comment.
The WFP truck was delivering food to internally displaced
people. Hundreds of thousands have been uprooted by renewed
fighting since Aug. 24, when a five-month ceasefire broke down,
humanitarian sources say.
Since then, no truck carrying food aid has entered Tigray, the
WFP said.
It says an estimated 13 million people in Tigray and the
neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar are in "desperate need
of food assistance".
The conflict pits Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government against
the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs
Tigray and used to dominate Ethiopia's ruling coalition.
The government accuses the TPLF of trying to reassert Tigrayan
dominance over Ethiopia. The TPLF accuses Abiy of over-centralising
power and oppressing Tigrayans.
(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Aaron Ross, Alex
Richardson and Mark Heinrich)
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