OMNA TIGRAY – DECEMBER 2021 SITUATION REPORT

More than a year into the state-sanctioned genocidal war on Tigray, the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe continues to endanger the lives of millions. After declaring war on the region of Tigray on November 4, 2020, the Ethiopian government, along with its allies, Eritrean forces, and Amhara special forces and militias, have overseen a campaign that has ushered in the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world. Consequently, tens of thousands have died, 70,000+ Tigrayans have sought refuge in Sudan, and over 2.2 million have become Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, public facilities, and places of worship, have been looted and destroyed. Furthermore, weaponized Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)has been an egregious aspect of this war, affecting tens of thousands of survivors who are currently cut off from desperately needed medical and psycho-social support.

As a consequence of the campaign of destruction the Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces have unleashed on Tigray, the region is experiencing a severe famine which threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, primarily children and vulnerable populations. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), since July 12, 2021, only15% of the trucks necessary to meet the overwhelming humanitarian needs have been allowed to enter Tigray. Aid trucks were not allowed into Tigray between October 18, 2021, and the last week of November, leaving Tigray with no lifesaving supplies, including food and medicine, for more than a month. While there are hundreds of trucks with lifesaving supplies in Semera, in the neighboring region of Afar, these trucks have been prohibited from traveling into Tigray.

The Abiy administration uses bureaucratic roadblocks to obstruct the delivery of aid into Tigray. This siege most severely affects children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. The Tigray External Affairs Office reported in November2021 that the global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate among children aged 6months to 59 months is at an alarming rate of 32%. Moreover, 28,541 children have been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, while malnutrition rates among pregnant and lactating mothers is at an alarming 85%

Furthermore, with only 14% of the total population having access to health facilities and medical supplies and medicine almost non-existent as a result of the intentional targeting of Tigray’s health infrastructure by invading forces and the Abiy administration’s siege, there is a healthcare emergency in Tigray, in which thousands are susceptible to otherwise preventable deaths. Because of the destruction of health facilities and telecommunication blackout, it is impossible to determine the severity of the humanitarian crisis, especially in rural areas that bear the brunt of the famine.

It is impossible to overstate the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray. Without concerted efforts to facilitate a cessation of hostilities and an all-inclusive political dialogue, this expanding catastrophe endangers not only the people of Tigray and Ethiopia but will further destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region. The international community has long called for all parties to enter into discussions to resolve the myriad of crises Ethiopia faces and alleviate human suffering. To this end, international and continental mediators, chief among them Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s High Representative for the Horn of Africa, have been holding consultations with the Abiy administration and representatives of the Tigray Regional Government in Tigray’s capital city of Mekelle. While these mediation efforts had offered a brief glimmer of hope, true to form, the Abiy administration immediately began undermining these efforts by carrying out bombardments of civilian settlements in Tigray in the last weeks of November 2021. Moreover, instead of urging restraint and de-escalation, Abiy himself and many of the top officials from his party have vowed to go to the battlefront themselves, escalating the warmongering rhetoric and closing the window of opportunity for dialogue and peaceful resolution.