UN Yet to resume flights into Ethiopia's Mekelle amid safety concerns
Oct 28, 2021
Mekelle [Ethiopia], October 28 (ANI/Sputnik): The United Nations has still not resumed humanitarian flights into Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's Tigray region, after a security incident last week forced the organization to suspend air service, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday.
"We have not been able to resume the normal activities of the UN humanitarian air service," Haq said during a press briefing. "There continue to be airstrikes today, so the situation on the ground and in the air in Tigray continues to be unsafe, and we want that to stop so that we can have our humanitarian flights return to normal."
Haq pointed out that the United Nations still has a presence in the region, with some 400 personnel helping distribute aid to Tigray's people in need.
On October 22, the United Nations decided to halt all humanitarian flights into Mekelle after its plane was forced to turn back and abort scheduled landing due to airstrikes in the capital.
Earlier on Thursday, at least six people were killed and dozens of others were injured in two airstrikes carried out in residential areas of Mekelle, according to the United Nations.
The internal conflict in Ethiopia erupted in the Tigray region in November of 2020 as the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked a military base and the Ethiopian government launched a counter-operation. (ANI/Sputnik)
