This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Tigray: Eritrean refugees ‘scared and struggling to eat’ amid aid obstacles

For the first time in weeks, aid teams have reached refugee camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, only to find that some Eritrean nationals there have likely died of preventable diseases, while others are “scared” and hungry.

The alert, from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, on Friday, is for more than 25,000 people living in two camps.

UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov urged all parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia to guarantee safe passage to the residents, so that they can be relocated to neighbouring Amara region.

He described how colleagues had found refugees frightened and “struggling to get enough to eat, lacking medicine and with little or no access to clean water”:

“If food, medicine, fuel and other supplies cannot be immediately brought in, and if we continue to be unable to relocate refugees out of harm's way, more refugees will die.”

Mr Cheshirkov said that more than 20 people had reportedly died in the last six weeks alone at the camps, amid worsening conditions and in particular a lack of medicine.

Tonga: Access to safe water for half the population ‘a serious concern’

To Tonga now, where access to safe water for more than half the population following the volcanic eruption and tsunami there, remains a serious concern, UN aid coordination office OCHA has said.

Reliable needs assessments from the island nation are still coming in slowly, amid ongoing communications problems, said Spokesperson Jens Laerke.

He added that the ash layer is 10 centimetres thick in places but that relief flights can now land at the main international airport.

There are also major concerns for the estimated 60,000 people affected by damage across all agricultural sectors, including fisheries, crops and livestock.

To help them, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday that it was ramping up the support it has been providing to Tonga, after a series of shocks in recent years.

Visit of UN expert on human rights in Sudan postponed

A top independent UN rights expert’s visit to Sudan has been put back at the last minute at the request of the authorities, it’s been announced.

Adama Dieng, the UN Expert on Human Rights in the Sudan, was due to make an official visit from 22 to 27 January.

The situation in Sudan remains tense, amid mass demonstrations following a military takeover last October, with peaceful protesters killed or injured on a near-daily basis by security forces, according to the UN rights office (OHCHR).

In a statement on Friday, Mr. Dieng said that he had been following the deteriorating human rights situation in the country “with deep concern”, since his appointment by the Human Rights Council in November 2021.

And he said that until he received a new date when he could visit the country, he would continue to engage with civil society and others, to closely monitor and assess the situation in the country.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.