UN says humanitarian conditions ‘hellish’ in Ethiopia’s war

THE United Nations secretary-general said Thursday that humanitarian conditions in Ethiopia are “hellish” as the nine-month Tigray conflict spreads in Africa’s second most populous country.

Antonio Guterres told reporters that the spread of the fighting “has ensnared even more people in its horror.”

Thousands of people have been killed since November, hundreds of thousands inside Tigray face famine conditions and hundreds of thousands in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions have been displaced in recent weeks as resurgent Tigray forces move in.

The secretary-general said he spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed earlier Thursday and “there was a commitment things would improve, but we have to see what happens in the next few days.” Previous commitments have not brought the unrestricted humanitarian access that the U.N. seeks for the Tigray region of some 6 million people.

The latest U.N. humanitarian update on Tigray, released on Thursday, said 100 trucks