“Engagement with Eritrea should not endanger the rights of the country’s population.”
The letter noted that Eritrean troops’ involvement in the Tigray conflict in northern Ethiopia had “further compounded” the situation. Discussing Tigray on Monday, Borrell said that “Eritrean troops are not withdrawing, and human rights violations continue.”
When it comes to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the federal government in Addis Ababa has no common understanding of events and is in “denial” over the scale of the problem, said Pekka Haavisto, European Union envoy, on Tuesday.
With negligible humanitarian access to the Tigray region since fighting broke out in November, Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, traveled to the region recently to assess the situation on behalf of the EU. He met with Ethiopian government ministers and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and he visited the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan.
The European Union’s top representative for development aid said Tuesday that the bloc needs to “plan very carefully” when it comes to Ethiopia, as Brussels continues to withhold funding from the government over the conflict in the country’s North. In December, the European Commission postponed €88 million in planned budget support payments, with officials saying they could not give one euro to the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed until unimpeded humanitarian access is granted to the Tigray region, among other conditions.
Jutta Urpilainen, EU commissioner for international partnerships, told reporters Tuesday that another five budget support payments, together worth €100 million ($120 million), are due in 2021.
UM RAKUBA CAMP, Sudan — Marta’s life in the town of Shire in Ethiopia was happy. She attended school — where she loved math class the most — and afterward helped out at her parents’ clothing shop.
But then November came. The Ethiopian government launched a military campaign in the country’s northern Tigray region, and chaos ensued. Marta and her brother spent 12 days hiding in the forest. She returned to town to search for her parents, then six armed men broke into her home and one of them raped her.
