Africa-Press-Ethiopia
Tigray leader’s letter gives a dire account of deaths and looting in his district in Ethiopia, which is cut off from aid.
The letter, dated June 16 and obtained by the Associated Press, reveals the devastating effects of the war between Ethiopia’s forces supported by Eritrea and former leaders of the Tigray region. A health official confirmed the letter that described the looting of 5,000 homes, at least 440 deaths and at least 558 victims of sexual violence, according to the Associated Press.
“There is no access to clean water; electricity, phone communication, banking, health care, and access to humanitarian aid are blocked,” Mai Kinetal district leader Berhe Desta Gebremariam said. “People are unable to move around to save their lives because Eritrean troops completely put us under siege with no transportation, and people are condemned to suffer and die.”
Berhe warned that without aid 2021 and 2022 will be devastating for the region and said Tigrayans “are falling like leaves.”
The plea arrived from a remote area that had so far produced only rumors and residents fleeing for their lives. Help us, the letter said, stamped and signed by Berhe. At least 125 people have already starved to death.
People are trapped in one of the most inaccessible areas of the conflict-torn Tigray region, beyond the reach of aid.
The letter is a rare insight into the most urgent unknown of the war between Ethiopian forces backed by Eritrea and Tigray’s former leaders: What’s the fate of hundreds of thousands of people cut off from the world for months?
As the United States warns that up to 900,000 people in Tigray face famine conditions in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, little is known about vast areas of Tigray that have been under the control of combatants from all sides since November. With blocked roads and ongoing fighting, humanitarian groups have been left without access.
A possible opening emerged this week when Ethiopia’s government announced an immediate, unilateral cease-fire after Tigray fighters re-entered the regional capital and government soldiers fled. An official for the United States Agency for International Development told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that some aid groups were expected to test the cease-fire immediately in an effort to reach remote areas.
However, it isn’t clear whether other parties in the conflict, including troops from neighboring Eritrea accused of some of the war’s worst atrocities, will respect the cease-fire. A Tigray spokesman rejected it as a “sick joke” and vowed to fully liberate the region.
The letter that reached the regional capital, Mekele, this month from the cut-off central district of Mai Kinetal was just the second plea of its kind, the health official who confirmed it said. The first had been a message from Ofla district reporting 150 deaths from starvation, which the United Nations humanitarian chief shared in a closed-door session of the U.N. Security Council in April, bringing an angry response from Ethiopia’s government.
