Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress she has made on delivering humanitarian assistance and supplies to Ethiopia's Tigray region during the ceasefire in that region.

As I observed in my statement of 1 April, the arrival of a humanitarian convoy in Tigrayan-controlled areas on that day was a welcome development, but there remains an acute and urgent requirement for sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access. I reiterated this critical need when I met with Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide on 21 April, and again in my statement on 28 April. 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 Ethiopia conflict has affected more than 9 million people - including 5.2 million people in Tigray, where humanitarian access is negligible.

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. It has funded 54 trucks for humanitarian convoys, 28 of them involved in the latest convoy on 24-25 April.