Food distribution remains the main component of the emergency response. As of 29 April, the Government and World Food Programme have distributed more than 19,000 metric tons of food, reaching 1.1 million people in 35 districts in the region.
Category: War Crimes
East Africa: ERIPS Statement on Addressing the Conflict and Refugee Situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
While calls for the Government of Eritrea to pull out of the conflict in Ethiopia increases, the international community must also consider the repercussions of Eritrean intervention in the Tigray war if a lasting solution is to be developed.
“Refugees International is concerned about reports that Ethiopian government forces and Eritrean soldiers have forced Eritrean refugees to return to Eritrea or other locations where they may be in danger. For example, Eritrean refugees who fled to Addis Ababa to avoid the fighting in Tigray have been rounded up and returned to camps in Tigray. This is unacceptable, as camps in Tigray are in the middle of an active conflict zone and have little access to food or medical supplies.”
‘I Didn’t Lose Hope’: Meet a Man Who Risked His Life to Secretly Film Inside One of Eritrea’s Brutal Prisons
“The reason I did this was to get evidence that the regime is oppressing the youth and the people and to show that the Eritrean people suffer a lot of abuses,”
“There are people who have been jailed for 20 years just for speaking out. So, me, I could have been executed.”
Women face terrible suffering as the conflict in Tigray drags on
Six months after the conflict began, governments need to be doing more to help those affected by the fighting
In any given humanitarian crisis, anywhere in the world, it is always the most marginalised, the most vulnerable groups that suffer the most. It is no surprise then that women and children are so often the bearers of the brunt of war.
Sexual violence used as ‘weapon of war’ in the ongoing conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia
Sexual violence is being used as a “weapon of war and humiliation” in Tigray, Ethiopia, according to a USAID-funded report. Many are saying this violence against women and children is rooted in ethnic cleansing. NBC News Foreign Correspondent Matt Bradley reports on the ongoing conflict. Warning: This report contains graphic accounts of sexual assault and may be disturbing.
Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir
Can the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia keep it together? Change has become increasingly bloody it The internet is routinely cut off in Ethiopia, CPJ has noted, including a nationwide shutdown in June 2020. The internet has been disrupted in Tigray since November 2020, when conflict broke out in the regional state, according to media reports. Officials have blamed the ousted Tigray leadership for the disconnection and Ethio Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, said in December that it was making repairs. In an email to CPJ in mid-April 2021, Billene Seyoum Woldeyes, a spokesperson for the Ethiopian prime minister’s office, said that the authorities did not cause the disruption and did not respond to a follow up question about why it had not been fixed. Ethio Telecom did not respond to CPJ’s social media message requesting comment about the ongoing problems.
Which way for Ethiopia? Abiy cracks down on regional revolts ahead of elections
Can the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia keep it together? Change has become increasingly bloody it seems since the 2012 death of longtime leader Meles Zenawi, a Tigrean whose home region is now in open revolt against the central government. There, conventional fighting is morphing into guerrilla warfare with reprisals against civilians fuelling a vicious circle. Elsewhere, regional and ethnic tensions are also on the rise.
Rape and Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray
Victims have told investigators that when Ethiopian federal regular soldiers and militia inflict infertility on Tigrayan women with burning metal rods, after gang-raping them, they tell the women that this is to stop them having ‘Woyene’ children (the Amharans’ derogatory term for ‘Tigrayans’).
‘No more sacred places’: Heritage sites under siege in Tigray conflict
“Not only us, but Muslims all over the world are shocked that this happened,”
“The FCDO must doIn the town of Dengolat, hundreds of residents hid in a centuries-old Orthodox church as Eritrean soldiers allegedly gunned down more than 160 civilians in late November.
At around the same time, Eritrean soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in the ancient Tigray city of Axum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, including Orthodox Christians gathering for a major festival, according to Human Rights Watch.
Ending Tigray conflict will test UK’s claim to be ‘force for good’
More than 1.7 million people have been displaced within Ethiopia by the fighting, according to the UN, and there have been widespread reports of rape, massacres and attacks on health facilities.
“The FCDO must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian access, and bring sanctions against those who try to obstruct delivery of vital food, water, healthcare and shelter,”