The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern about allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including reports of sexual violence against women and girls in the Tigray region and called for Benishangul-Gumuz has seen a surge of ethnic violence in recent months, including an attack in December that killed more than 200 civilians. The region is home to many ethnic groups, including the Gumuz, Agaws and Shinasas and the Amhara, and has seen increasingly bloody attacks on civilians.
Category: Weaponized Starvation
Ethiopia: Tigray crisis in 6th month, ‘no clear end’
“More than one million people have been displaced, and fighting continues. Access and security remain serious issues.
Met a 16-year-old girl who fled fighting in the western part of Tigray, and walked – with her baby brother on her back – for 300 kilometers (186 miles).
“This is also an education and nutrition emergency, and I saw extensive destruction to the systems and essential services on which children rely.
Ethiopia: Survivors describe being shot by soldiers in Tigray
Twenty injured people treated at hospitals supported by MSF
“The indiscriminate shooting of people far from a front line is shocking—in a public place, in a big town, in a busy moment of the day,” said Maricarmen Viñoles, the head of MSF’s emergency unit. “We urge all armed parties to this conflict to protect and respect people’s lives.”
Crisis in Tigray enters sixth month with no clear end in sight amid ‘severe and ongoing child rights violations’
“More than one million people have been displaced, and fighting continues. Access and security remain serious issues.
“This is a protection crisis. What is emerging is a disturbing picture of severe and ongoing child rights violations.
“This is also an education and nutrition emergency, and I saw extensive destruction to the systems and essential services on which children rely.
US raising alarm over ‘deteriorating’ humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region
“Humanitarians absolutely need unhindered access to populations in need, and we are concerned about the fact that there are populations that we haven’t yet been able to reach,” said Emily Dakin, the senior U.S. Agency for International Development official leading the U.S. response in Tigray.
More 500 rape cases have been reported, the United Nations said in late March, although the number is likely higher. The top health official in Tigray’s interim government told Reuters last week, “Women are being kept in sexual slavery.”
Worries rise for Tigray residents’ longer-term safety
“People urgently need food and nutrition support. They are keen to resume their previous livelihoods activities, but they need support to acquire inputs, and most of all, they need stability and safety. Households in Eastern Tigray rely heavily on livestock, as well as on daily labor and petty trade. The continued instability and fear of displacement and looting means many are not yet ready to begin reinvesting in other livelihoods.”
Recommendations for addressing drought displacement in Ethiopia
Drought-related displacement affects more and more people, but it is not the only type of displacement Ethiopia faces. More than a million new displacements associated with conflict and violence were also recorded in 2019.3
As aid must also be directed to people affected by inter-communal conflicts, humanitarian aid available to people displaced by drought has ended up being insufficient.
Video shows the horror of rape as weapon of war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
When she arrived at the hospital, she was incredibly weak. The gynecologist who carried out the operation successfully removed two nails, several pieces of tissue, a balled up plastic bag and a rock from her vaginal cavity. She was bleeding but, thankfully, there were no perforations [Editor’s note: holes in the wall of her vaginal cavity.] There will be no permanent damage. Her reproductive organs still work. So there is no serious permanent physical damage. But in terms of psychological trauma, that is something else.
All of the personnel at the hospital were horrified by this case. I haven’t seen or heard of this practice in any other case of rape during this conflict. And I haven’t heard of this taking place anywhere else. We see rape cases but not this… how can you reach that degree of inhumanity?
reuters: Eritrea admits presence in Ethiopia’s Tigray, tells U.N. withdrawing
“Neither the U.N. nor any of the humanitarian agencies we work with have seen proof of Eritrean withdrawal,” Lowcock told the Security Council on Thursday. “We have, however, heard some reports of Eritrean soldiers now wearing Ethiopian Defense Force uniforms.”
aljazeera: Eritrea confirms its troops are fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray
For months, both sides denied Eritreans were involved, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, and diplomats.
The conflict arrived in the middle of the harvest in Tigray and for months humanitarian access was greatly restricted, prompting fears of widespread starvation.