The Tigray conflict has displaced 720,000 children in need of urgent assistance and protection

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday warned of the scale and severity of violations of children's rights in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, where intense fighting has raged for nearly seven months between the government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The conflict has displaced at least 1.6 million people, including 720,000 children, who are now crowded into overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe sites, where they are at increased risk of gender-based violence, abuse or exploitation and waterborne diseases.

UNICEF said women and girls are targets of sexual violence, adding that while its staff have assisted more than 540 survivors of such abuse, lack of security and fear of reprisals prevent countless others from receiving the care and services they urgently need.

"Children, parents and caregivers report deep anxiety and distress, and say they fear reprisals or attacks. Adolescents, for their part, fear recruitment by parties to the conflict," the agency said in a statement, which also reports arbitrary arrests.

So far, UNICEF has helped identify and register more than 6,000 unaccompanied or separated children for protection and assistance. However, it estimates that there are many more children in need of support in areas that cannot be reached due to insecurity or access restrictions imposed by parties to the conflict.

Much of Tigray remains inaccessible to humanitarian workers. Since early April, at least 31 missions of mobile health, nutrition and water teams supported by UNICEF and its partners have been blocked, either because of insecurity or because they were harassed and denied passage.

"Children are paying a terrible price for this conflict," UNICEF said, urging the warring actors to respect their fundamental obligation to allow continued and unconditional access to civilians in need of assistance, especially children.

"Above all, we call on all parties to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse, and to avoid separation from their parents or primary caregivers," the UN agency stressed.

The World Food Programme (WFP), another UN agency assisting people in need in Tigray, has already reached one million people with emergency assistance.

WFP food rations have been distributed since March in north-western and southern Tigray, areas where the agency will expand its operations with the aim of assisting 2.1 million people in need of food assistance.

WFP estimates that 5.2 million people, 91 percent of Tigray's population, are in need of emergency food assistance and has requested $203 million to continue expanding its humanitarian operations this year, not only delivering food but also restoring people's livelihoods.