OMNA TIGRAY – OCTOBER 2021 SITUATION REPORT

It has been 11 months since Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared war on the people of Tigray. As Tigray approaches the one-year mark of the beginning of this war, the humanitarian catastrophe Abiy and his partner, Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki, have unleashed is unparalleled in its magnitude and severity. Conservative reports indicate that more than 70,000 Tigrayans have been killed since the onset of the war, with tens of thousands more injured. 6.8 million people in the region are in dire need of emergency aid, more than 900,000 are in conditions of famine, and 100,000 children are at risk of death from severe acute malnutrition. At least 70,000 people have fled to neighbouring Sudan while over 2.2 million people are internally displaced, sheltering in makeshift camps and schools.

The region’s healthcare infrastructure has completely collapsed, with 80% of health facilities looted, vandalized, or otherwise destroyed. In Western Tigray, which is still under the occupation of invading Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Amhara regional forces, Tigrayans continue to face ethnic cleansing, imprisonment in concentration camps, and extrajudicial executions and massacres. The Irob and Kumana, Tigray’s minority groups located on the Eritrean border, are still underfull occupation by Eritrean forces. Tigrayans living in many other parts of Ethiopia have also been targeted because of their identity, with tens of thousands evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, arbitrarily detained, and disappeared.

Since June 28, 2020, when the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) were forced to retreat from many parts of Tigray after a decisive defeat by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), the Abiy administration has imposed a deadly siege on the region. The administration has obstructed the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid into the region and cut off vital supplies, including cash and fuel. The siege exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the lives of millions, preventing the delivery of crucial food, non-food, and medical supplies into the region. The few trucks carrying humanitarian aid able to enter the region are unable to return because of the severe fuel shortage that the regional government of Tigray has long warned about. Moreover, the complete suspension of vital services such as electricity, banking, ground and air transportation, and communication is dangerously hampering the humanitarian response, heightening the death toll in the region. In addition to desperately needed food supplies, Tigray has also run out of medical supplies. The Abiy administration has prevented aid agencies from transporting any medical supplies to Tigray, confiscating and looting medication destined for Tigray. The deadly besiegement of Tigray thus continues unabated.

On September 17, 2021, U.S. President Joseph Biden signed an executive order that enables the American government to impose sanctions on those implicated in the ongoing humanitarian and human rights crisis in Northern Ethiopia. Similar meaningful action in the form of sanctions or the threat of sanctions is required from donor states and the international community at large to break the deadly siege that threatens the lives of millions of people in Tigray. While the international community has worked through established institutions and official channels to facilitate a ceasefire and political resolution to the crises in Ethiopia, these institutions must take urgent and forceful measures while remaining free, fair, and unbiased. As such, investigations into the atrocities perpetrated in Tigray require independent international investigators. Joint investigations undertaken in partnership with state-affiliated organizations, such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a biased and unreliable organization that has repeatedly downplayed the atrocities in Tigray, cannot provide a clear and accurate picture of the humanitarian crisis on the ground.