One assessment, carried out by a partner of Unicef, showed that as many as 70,000 children under the age of five in Shire, are severely malnourished.
Source: Irish Times
Aid agencies concerned about a building humanitarian crisis in the Ethiopian region
Ethiopian refugees who fled the Tigray conflict at a village next to Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan. Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty
“Since the start of the fighting, in early November, the population has been largely cut off from the outside world,” said Karline Kleijer, Médecins Sans Frontières emergency manager. “The banks are not operating, the mobile phone networks don’t work, there’s no internet any more. And, meanwhile, several armed groups are roaming around in the area.”
There is a huge food shortage because commercial food deliveries aren’t happening, farmers can’t harvest, and some crops were completely burned down or destroyed. Hospitals and clinics were looted, she said, as staff fled or were also trying to find food for their own families. “The population in Tigray, close to six million people, are really taking the brunt of this fighting,” Ms Kleijer said.
Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. In 2018 Abiy Ahmed, an ethnic Oromo, took over as prime minister. This brought to an end decades of control by the Tigray minority.
Ethiopia’s national elections, which had been scheduled for August 2020, were postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, Tigray went ahead with its own elections, which the central government decried as illegitimate. Two months later Mr Abiy announced the military offensive against Tigray.
After the war began, communications – including phone lines and internet – were cut, making it almost impossible to get accurate information about what was happening. They remain down in most areas of Tigray.
‘More disturbing’
This week Unicef said its staff are still struggling to assess the impact of the war.
“Our concern is that what we don’t know could be even more disturbing,” said the agency’s executive director, Henrietta Fore. “For 12 weeks the international humanitarian community has had very limited access to conflict-affected populations across most of Tigray.”
More than 57,000 civilians have fled across the border to eastern Sudan, including at least 300 unaccompanied children.
Tigray has long homed about 100,000 Eritrean refugees, who fled what is one of the world’s most secretive dictatorships, where young people are forced into indefinite national service.
A 2018 peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea was one of the reasons Mr Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. Now it seems that both countries have united against the Tigrayans.
On Tuesday the US called for Eritrean forces to leave Tigray. In a statement, the state department cited evidence of Eritrean soldiers forcibly returning Eritrean refugees to Eritrea, as well as “credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses”.
“It remains unclear how many Eritrean soldiers are in Tigray, or precisely where,” the statement read.
Eritreans are stealing spoons, baby diaper and other tiny utensils. I do developed an enormous pity for these Eritreans and their descendants - stealing a diaper, spoons, gourd that we use to fetch water the endless list goes on and on. This kind of crime against civilians clearly demonstrates the living condition of Eritreans and their poor and cruel leaders who torture and shape them to build such kind of personality. people treat you the way they have been treated earlier by their masters as it appears normal to them. Many Eritrean refugees claim they have been raped and tortured in Eritrea and if they get sent back to Eritrea they will face the same torture.
Eritreans are now overwhelmed with fear and shame and they will be suffering from a psychological disorder pertaining to this war crime that their people committed in Tigray .
Tigray shall prevail, Sudan will not give an inch from its territory . We are not Ethiopians anymore but Tegarus . Tigray will officially be soon a Country . President Joe Biden should act swiftly.
Where is UNSC, UN , EU, IGAD, AU, and humanitarian agencies when millions starve to death under communication blackout ? Do their action limited to issuing letters bearing warnings They must act as soon as possible , if we have to witness their exclusive authority and magnitude of their authorization over the state members of UN and the world at large.
I concur fully with your comments that the atrocities now committed on the innocent people of Tigray were perpetrated on the people of Eritrea for 30 years. As a human being and an Eritrean, I feel ashamed that my people are committing such heinous crimes.
I only wish the Tigrayan authorities whilst in power similarly understood and acted to prevent the atrocities that were committed on innocent Eritrean in the hands of Isias for 30 years. If the Tigrayan dominated Ethiopian ruling party had acted to save Eritrean lives, I am sure we would not now be in this mess where everyone and all of us be Eritreans or Tigrayans are suffering. The sole focus by TPLF on Economic development at the expense of its own security is in some ways the root cause of the humanitarian crisis we are now sadly witnessing.
In the end, Tigrayans and Eritreans have to live side by side and we must find a common ground to work together to bring the change our people need and demand of us. This was what was lacking in the last 30 years and we, the people must learn from it.
If you pock an Eritrean eye, a Tigrayan eye weeps and vice versa!