The Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission on Wednesday announced that more than 157,000 metric tons of food have been distributed to people affected by conflict in northern Ethiopia.

The second round of emergency food assistance is being distributed to 21.2 million people who are affected by conflict and drought, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) quoted Debebe Zewdie, public relations director of the commission, as saying.

"In a humanitarian work carried out from mid-December 2022 to Feb. 16, 2023, about 157,852 metric tons of food has been distributed to people living in conflict-affected areas in northern Ethiopia," Zewdie said.

The Ethiopian government and humanitarian organizations have supplied the food, the director said, noting that the delivery of emergency food assistance to conflict-affected areas has reached 92 percent completion.

He said 1,316,848 liters of fuel has also been supplied to Ethiopia's Tigray region on top of the provision of more than 2.9 billion Ethiopian birrs (around 54 million U.S. dollars) to the needy people in the region during the stated period.

The director has appealed for urgent emergency response from the private and state actors as well as humanitarian organizations, highlighting that there are several millions of people requiring urgent food assistance across the country.

Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, has seen a devastating conflict between government-allied troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) since November 2020, which left thousands of people dead and millions more in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

The Ethiopian government and the TPLF on Nov. 2, 2022, signed a cessation of hostilities to end the conflict.