The World Food Programme has said that its first aid convoy arrived in Ethiopia's Tigray region on Wednesday following the signing of a truce earlier this month calling for unhindered humanitarian access to the war-torn northern region.

There has been a sustained diplomatic push trying to bring peace to the Tigray region, with the conflict parties holding talks in neighboring Djibouti. Just days ago, the Tigray People's Liberation Front said it was ready for a ceasefire. But now there is more violence again.

The African Union has invited the leaders of both Ethiopia's federal government and the country's embattled Tigray region to peace talks. It's still unclear whether the talks will take place at the highest level.

There has been a sustained diplomatic push trying to bring peace to the Tigray region, with the conflict parties holding talks in neighboring Djibouti. Just days ago, the Tigray People's Liberation Front said it was ready for a ceasefire. But now there is more violence again.

Even with humanitarian convoys allowed to enter Tigray, rates of malnutrition have skyrocketed, according to the World Food Program. The UN officials warned that the situation is likely to get worse.

Aid convoys have yet to reach Ethiopia's war-ravaged Tigray region almost a week after the government announced a humanitarian truce.

The conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region continues to escalate one year after breaking out. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called on civilians to take up arms against the Tigrayan forces and warned he would bury his enemies with blood.

There's no end in sight to Ethiopia's Tigray conflict following days of airstrikes by federal government forces.

Aid workers inside Ethiopia have warned that hostilities will only aggravate the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region. Clashes have already driven hundreds of thousands of people into famine-like conditions.

In this edition: The United States says the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia amounts to "ethnic cleansing". Our Observers team bring us a special report on the fighting. Also, after one year of Covid-19 in Africa, we look at where the continent stands now in its fight against the pandemic. Finally, we meet the female rappers making waves in Mali’s music scene.

Among the thousands of people fleeing the five-week-old conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region are a few dozen men, women and children from Eritrea, one of the world's most authoritarian states. They were already living as refugees in Tigray, which had long been a safe haven for them during years of conflict in Eritrea. But when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government launched a military operation against Tigray's ruling party, the Eritrean refugees' illusion of safety was shattered as violence escalated around their camps.

UN given complete aid access to Ethiopia's Tigray region