Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n
AHUMANITARIAN crisis is unfolding in Ethiopia as conflict spreads beyond the Tigray region, the chief of the United Nations warned on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Secretary-general Antonio Guterres told the UN security council: \u201cInflammatory rhetoric and ethnic profiling are tearing apart the social fabric of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll parties must immediately end hostilities without preconditions and seize that opportunity to negotiate a lasting ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Guterres said that more than two million people had been displaced from their homes and that millions more were in immediate need of life-saving humanitarian assistance, including food, water, shelter and healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human price of this war is mounting by the day,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also criticised the de facto humanitarian blockade of the Tigray region and its six million residents, warning that food warehouses were being left empty.<\/p>\n
He spoke as Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF) leader Debretsion Gebremichael expressed the group\u2019s commitment to a negotiated end to the nine-month war that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Mr Guterres, Mr Gebremichael declared that the group wants an impartial mediator, among other conditions, and warned that the African Union \u201ccannot provide any solution to the war,\u201d which he said it \u201cendorsed\u201d early in the fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim is to exterminate Tigrayans by starving them to death,\u201d Mr Gebremichael said.<\/p>\n
China, a permanent security council member, has expressed its opposition to external interference in Ethiopia\u2019s affairs and, along with Russia, warned that sanctions by individual countries would only worsen the conflict.<\/p>\n
This week, the United States imposed a sanction against the chief of staff of Eritrea\u2019s defence forces until they remove soldiers from the region.<\/p>\n
But at Thursday\u2019s meeting, the US expressed concern that large numbers of people would starve to death if food shortages continue.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s ambassador to the UN Taye Atske Selassie told the meeting that the country was improving the process for the delivery of aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe TPLF is standing between Ethiopia and peace,\u201d he claimed, accusing it of being \u201cbent on destabilising\u201d the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are open to working with all well-intentioned partners,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Due to members\u2019 conflicting views, it is unlikely that the security council will be able to take significant action on the crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press-Ethiopia AHUMANITARIAN crisis is unfolding in Ethiopia as conflict spreads beyond the Tigray region, the chief of the United Nations warned on Thursday. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres told the UN security council: \u201cInflammatory rhetoric and ethnic profiling are tearing apart the social fabric of the country. \u201cAll parties must immediately end hostilities without preconditions and seize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[241,236],"class_list":["post-6840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press-ethiopia","tag-tigray"],"yoast_head":"\n