Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

In London, I'm Jason Palmer.

And in New York, I'm John Fassman.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Russia's indiscriminate destruction in Ukraine comes at a human cost that cannot be calculated.

Estimating damage to the country's infrastructure, housing and economy isn't easy either.

We look at the scope of and the need for an international rebuilding plan.

For more than two years, the world has seen pandemic-driven shortages of consumer goods.

In South Africa, grocery stores are lacking not surgical masks or lural, but a dark, viscous,

jarred substance that much of the world finds revolting.

First up though.

After 17 months of fighting, Ethiopia's Civil War has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

As food has become scarce, famine has blighted the northern Tigray region.

Medical supplies have become scarce too, and people are dying unnecessarily in Tigray's

main hospital.

The government had announced an indefinite humanitarian truce on the 24th of March.

And leaders from the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front or TPLF accepted the terms of the ceasefire.

Now, after much delay, a convoy of trucks loaded with food will soon be on its way.

But it's a fragile peace and worries about renewed fighting have, until now, kept relief

just out of reach for Tigrayans.

The government has allowed shipments of food to travel along just a single road into Tigray.

Tom Gardner is our Addis Ababa correspondent.

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