Ethiopia sends $90m to restart banking services in Tigray

The Ethiopian government says it has sent $90 million to the Tigrayan capital to help restart banking services in the country.

Prime Minister Abiy’s national security advisor, Redwan Hussein, announced on Twitter that the National Bank had started to send the money to the capital Mekele for distribution from Monday

Ethiopian Airlines was also planning to increase the number of flights to the region.

On Friday, the prime minister met for the first time with Tigrayan leaders since a peace agreement was signed in Pretoria in November after a violent conflict between the federal government and rebels in the northern Ethiopian region.

Since the agreement was signed in the South African capital, fighting has stopped and aid deliveries to Tigray have resumed, as the region has long faced severe shortages of food, fuel, cash and medicine.

The war, which broke out in November 2020, has displaced more than two million people and put hundreds of thousands in near-starvation conditions, according to the UN.

The US puts the death toll at 500,000.

africanews