“More than one million people have been displaced, and fighting continues. Access and security remain serious i”Sexual and gender-based violence has also been used systematically,”
“The volatile situation and fighting on the ground continue to restrict the humanitarian response. There remains a strong need to urge all parties about the need to respect international humanitarian law and international refugee law,”
The Council today adopted conclusions stressing on the one hand Ethiopia’s important role as a strategic partner and a key multilateral actor, and on the other hand reiterating the EU’s great concerns regarding the situation in the Tigray region and the wider region.
Ethiopian authorities and others obstructing humanitarian aid into the Tigray region could end up on an EU sanctions list, under a new idea floated by the European Commission.
The Brussels executive, on Wednesday (10 March), said it will consider listing people who violated international humanitarian law under its EU sanctions regimes.
Ethiopia’s war is being fought not just in a blackout, but also in a fog of lies – and Ethiopia’s envoy to the EU is making matters worse.
Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia’s EU ambassador, recently wrote to EUobserver, accusing Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, of making “erroneous” claims after he visited the region and told press that violence and suffering was “out of control”.
The EU has urged Ethiopia to let the international community see what it is doing in its Tigray region after four months of civil war and reports of atrocities. “Some 80 percent of Tigray’s population is unreachable … it’s a complete blackout,” EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said in Brussels Monday, following a fact-finding mission to the conflict zone by Finland. There must be “full and immediate access”, Borrell said.
