Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the humanitarian situation in Tigray; and what steps her Department is taking to assist the people of Tigray.

The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia, from north to south, is grave and is worsening. More than 400,000 people are experiencing catastrophic famine-like conditions in Tigray and this year nearly 30 million people throughout the country will require life-saving aid. In northern regions conflict has affected more than 9 million people - including 5.2 million people in Tigray, where humanitarian access is negligible. As I [Minister Ford] expressed in my statement of 1 April, the arrival of a humanitarian convoy in Tigrayan-controlled areas on that day was a welcome development, but we now need to see sustained humanitarian access.

Since the start of the conflict in November 2020 the UK has allocated more than £75 million in humanitarian assistance for Northern Ethiopia. This includes £15.6 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its food and nutrition operations in northern Ethiopia. This helped WFP reach more than 885,000 people with food assistance and approximately 219,000 people with nutrition support. We welcome the cessation of hostilities announced by the Ethiopian Government and agreed by Tigrayan authorities on 25 March. All parties to the conflict must now facilitate urgent humanitarian relief, especially to communities in Tigray who have not had food aid for months.