The Ethiopian government’s assertion that Tigray forces are to blame is “100% not the case,” a senior USAID official told The Associated Press, adding that “our primary obstacle is the government.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Witnesses have told the AP this has been the problem in Tigray for months.
While the senior official said insecurity preventing movement along roads could be an issue, “what we’re seeing is (aid) convoys being turned around at checkpoints manned by Ethiopian soldiers or their proxies … It’s not a question of being turned around by Tigrayans. I think (the Tigray forces) have been messaging very clearly they’re ready to support humanitarian activities.”
Power has requested a meeting with Ethiopia’s prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea but has since joined forces with Eritrea to wage war in the Tigray region after a political falling-out with the region’s leaders. The conflict is now spreading into neighboring regions in Africa’s second most populous country, long a key U.S. security ally.
Some 6 million Tigray residents have been caught in the fighting since the war began in November, when Abiy accused Tigray forces of attacking a military base. Thousands of civilians have since been killed. Now the U.S. estimates up to 900,000 face famine conditions after Ethiopian and allied forces destroyed crops, looted food supplies and threatened farmers from planting. Food prices are rising, while banks remain closed.
The U.S. earlier imposed aid cuts and visa restrictions over the Tigray crisis, angering Ethiopian officials, and Power’s visit will warn of “continuing consequences” for the government, the senior official said. There were no details, but “the longer that this blockage goes on, the more likely we are to see additional punitive measures.”
Tigray remains almost completely cut off from the outside world. The United Nations has said some 200 aid-laden trucks are “stuck” in Ethiopia’s neighboring Afar region on the only remaining road access to Tigray. Bridges on other routes were destroyed as Ethiopian forces retreated from the region in June.
“People are starving,” U.N. World Food Program head David Beasley said this week, warning that the agency will run out of food for Tigray on Friday. The AP has reported that scores of people have died of starvation in the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.
Ethiopia’s government on Wednesday said it stands by the unilateral cease-fire it declared in June as its military withdrew, saying it was for humanitarian reasons. The government has said the cease-fire will end once the planting season in Tigray is over, meaning September, and already authorities are supporting military recruiting drives amid concerns over a new offensive.
Abiy’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, accused Tigray forces of blocking the delivery of aid. “The international community has been shockingly mute” on the Tigray forces’ actions, which include crossing into the Afar and neighboring Amhara regions, she said.
Power during her visit will press for “overland access” for aid, the senior USAID official told the AP. While she is first visiting neighboring Sudan, which borders Tigray and is a potential supply route, “right now the principal focus is on getting the Ethiopian government to allow food convoys through Ethiopia into Tigray,” the senior official said. Other ways are being explored but would be “inadequate to meet the scale of need.”
The WFP has said 20 convoys of 100 trucks each need to enter Tigray every month to meet needs and “so far we’ve gotten one,” the senior official said. A second convoy was attacked in Afar earlier this month. The U.N. on Wednesday said 44 trucks are now trying to reach Tigray.
Because of the fighting, Power is “not permitted” to travel to Tigray, the senior USAID official said.
And while Power has been outspoken about Tigray, she will not use the word “genocide” in referring to the region because the U.S. State Department is determining what legal term to use for what’s occurring there, the senior official said.
“Certainly, ethnic targeting of Tigrayans, the rhetoric seen from Abiy recently, really dehumanizing rhetoric about his own citizens, is very concerning and certainly reminiscent of other conflicts in which we’ve seen mass atrocities committed,” the senior official said.
Ethiopia’s prime minister earlier this month described the Tigray forces as “weeds” and a “cancer,” further alarming ethnic Tigrayans who have alleged that thousands of non-combatants have been detained during the conflict because of their identity alone.
Abiy didn’t give ear to the likes of Mr. Coons. Why USA think he will listen to an ngo representative? As such one already strongly biased against. At social media Abiy Camp call her MSTPLF.
This is just wast of time - time which Tigray people don’t have at all!!
None, but the TDF forces have saved most of the Tigrayan masses from complete genocide. Waiting for the world was “Waiting for Godot.” In the same manner, TDF must recapture Western Tigray; it will enable cross-border operations for food supply from the Sudan. TDF must use its nimble military prowess without any delays! There is no other objective worth than a humanitarian corridor.