Ethiopia’s situation is \u201cspiraling out of control with appalling impact on civilians\u201d and urgently needs outside monitoring, the United Nations human rights chief warned Wednesday, but Ethiopia rejects calls for independent investigations into the deadly fighting in its Tigray region, saying it \u201cdoesn\u2019t need a baby-sitter.”<\/p>\n
The government’s declaration came amid international calls for more transparency into the month-long fighting between Ethiopian forces and those of the fugitive Tigray regional government that is thought to have killed thousands, including civilians. At least one large-scale massacre has been documented by human rights groups, and others are feared.<\/p>\n
Senior government official Redwan Hussein told reporters on Tuesday evening that Ethiopia will invite assistance only if it feels that \u201cit failed to investigate.\u201d To assume it can\u2019t carry out such probes \u201cis belittling the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Frustration is growing as the northern Tigray region remains largely cut off from the world, with food and medicines desperately needed by the population of 6 million \u2014 some 1 million now thought to be displaced.<\/p>\n
The lack of transparency, with most communications and transport links severed, complicates efforts to verify the warring side\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n
It also hides the extent of atrocities feared to have been committed since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Nov. 4 announced that fighting had begun with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which dominated Ethiopia\u2019s government for nearly three decades before he came to power and sidelined it.<\/p>\n
Each government now regards the other as illegal, as the TPLF objects to the postponement of national elections until next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and sees Abiy\u2019s mandate as expired.<\/p>\n
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called the situation \u201cexceedingly worrying and volatile\u201d with fighting reported to continue in areas surrounding the Tigray capital, Mekele, and the towns of Sheraro and Axum, \u201cin spite of government claims to the contrary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have corroborated information of gross human rights violations and abuses including indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, looting, abductions and sexual violence against women and girls,\u201d Bachelet told reporters. \u201cThere are reports of forced recruitment of Tigrayan youth to fight against their own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she said, “we have been unable to access the worst affected areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s government objects to what it calls \u201cinterference,\u201d from efforts at dialogue to delivering aid, drawing on its history as the rare African country never colonized, a source of deep national pride.<\/p>\n
The government on Tuesday said its forces had shot at and detained U.N. staffers who allegedly broke through checkpoints while trying to reach areas where \u201cthey were not supposed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident \u201cis really costly\u201d because it further delays humanitarian operations for people in Tigray who have been waiting five weeks for aid, U.N. humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
He said the six-member U.N. team, which was detained in Humera and released two days later, was the first sent into Tigray and was carrying out security assessments along roads that had been previously agreed upon with Ethiopia’s government. Such assessments are crucial before aid can be moved in.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have to work out additional operational details with the government,” especially on security, Abreu said, repeating the U.N.’s call for unfettered, unconditional access.<\/p>\n
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, tweeted that \u201cwe strongly urge all parties to safeguard humanitarian \u200bworkers in and around Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region. We continue to urge immediate and unhindered humanitarian access \u200bthroughout Tigray.”<\/p>\n
The shooting occurred a week after the U.N. and the government signed a deal to allow humanitarian access. The deal, crucially, allows aid only in areas under federal government control.<\/p>\n
Needs are critical. Mekele, a city of a half-million people, is \u201cbasically today without medical care,” the director-general of the International Committee for the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, told reporters on Tuesday. The Ayder Referral Hospital has run out of supplies, including fuel for generators.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctors and nurses have been forced to make horrible life and death decisions,\u201d Mardini said. \u201cThey suspended intensive care services and are really struggling to take care like delivering babies or providing dialysis treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A joint ICRC-Ethiopian Red Cross convoy with supplies for hundreds of wounded people is ready to go to Mekele, pending approval, he said. It would be the first international convoy to reach the city.<\/p>\n
While the risk of insecurity remains in the Tigray capital, there is no active fighting, Mardini said.<\/p>\n
Overall, he said, “people in Tigray have been cut off from services for nearly a month. They have had no phone, no internet, no electricity and no fuel. Cash is running out. This of course adds to the tension.\u201d<\/p>\n
In neighboring Sudan, nearly 50,000 Ethiopian refugees now take shelter. Some resist being moved to a camp away from the border, in the hope that missing family members, separated by the fighting, can be found.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we go?\u201d asked one refugee, Haile Gebremikeal. \u201cIf we can stay here for one or two months, if they give us a chance, we can look for our family or our family can look for us. There are no telephones, no internet. We don\u2019t have anything.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ethiopia’s situation is \u201cspiraling out of control with appalling impact on civilians\u201d and urgently needs outside monitoring, the United Nations human rights chief warned Wednesday, but Ethiopia rejects calls for independent investigations into the deadly fighting in its Tigray region, saying it \u201cdoesn\u2019t need a baby-sitter.” The government’s declaration came amid international calls for more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,235,236],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-ethiopia","tag-tigray"],"yoast_head":"\n