UN Agencies Warn of Worsening Humanitarian Catastrophe in Tigray 

GENEVA - U.N. aid agencies warn of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia’s battle-scarred Tigray region if they are prevented from delivering life-saving assistance to this stricken area.   The Ethiopian government’s tenuous unilateral ceasefire in Tigray after eight months of conflict has not got off to a good start.  The U.N. refugee agency reports the electrical power and phone networks in its offices in the capital Mekelle are not functioning, hampering its ability to deliver humanitarian aid.   

The U.N. children’s fund has condemned the pillaging of its video equipment Monday by members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, warning 140,000 acutely malnourished children were at risk of dying without urgent nutritional treatment.      The World Food Program is demanding full access to Tigray to deliver life-saving food assistance to millions of hungry people.   Among them, it says, are half a million children, women and men who face starvation over the coming months.    The World Health Organization reports the region’s health system has collapsed.  WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, says WHO can do little to help the beleaguered population because access to the area is extremely limited.