UN confirms military forces blocking aid in Ethiopia's Tigray region following CNN investigation

The United Nations has confirmed that military forces are impeding humanitarian access to parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region, after a CNN investigation revealed that Eritrean troops were coordinating with Ethiopian forces to cut off critical aid routes.

A CNN team traveling through Tigray's central zone witnessed Eritrean soldiers, some disguising themselves in old Ethiopian military uniforms, blocking aid to starving populations more than a month after Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize winning leader Abiy Ahmed pledged to the international community that they would leave. In the UN's first statement confirming the obstruction of aid, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that "blockades by military forces" had severely impeded the ability for assistance to reach rural areas where the humanitarian crisis is worst.