AFP: UN condemns ‘dangerous’ claims of bias against aid workers in Tigray

The UN’s humanitarian chief on Tuesday condemned as “dangerous” accusations by Ethiopian government officials that aid workers were biased in favour of — and even arming — rebel forces in war-hit Tigray.

Martin Griffiths also called for access to allow desperately needed aid into the region where the UN says hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from famine.

“Blanket accusations of humanitarian aid workers need to stop,” he said during a press conference at the end of a six-day visit to Ethiopia, his first mission in his new role.

Yahoo: ‘I don’t feel safe’: Survivors allege rape by soldiers in Tigray

Once a day, she says, Ethiopian soldiers would line up outside her cell in a military camp, sometimes as many as 10 men waiting their turn to rape her.

According to Tirhas, the group assaults lasted for two weeks — from the afternoon soldiers picked her up off a street in Mekele, the capital of Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region, until the day they drove her home.

AFP: A bid ‘to exterminate us’: Tigrayans recount massacre by Eritrean troops

The soldiers had tied their hands with belts and ropes and shot them in the head.

“I’d rather die than have lived to see this,” Beyenesh told AFP, tears rolling down her face as she described how the annual festival of Saint Mary turned into a bloodbath.

Local church officials say 164 civilians were killed in Dengolat, with most of the deaths occurring on November 30, one day after the festival.

That makes it one of the worst known atrocities in the ongoing conflict in Tigray.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has tightly restricted humanitarian and media access to the region, and for nearly three months Dengolat residents despaired of sharing their story with the world.

Barron’s: ‘Blanket Of Sadness’ Covers Conflict-hit Tigray Capital

Women walk the streets wearing black as news of dead relatives trickles in from rural areas that remain inaccessible.

Mekele natives worry their home may never regain its old charm.

“This was a fast-growing city, it was a very vibrant city. It was alive for 24 hours,” said Dr Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital.

“Now, as you can see, it is covered in a blanket of sadness.”

IBTimes: In Shadow Of Tigray War, Ethnic Massacres Roil Western Ethiopia

On the night before Orthodox Christmas last month, Ethiopian priest Girmay Getahun donned a white robe and, Bible in hand, walked down the dirt road to his church to prepare for services.

Around midnight, heavily-armed fighters arrived in his village, in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz region, sending Girmay fleeing into the forest to hide for two days.

He returned to a horrifying sight: the corpses of his eight housemates, all day-labourers on teff and peanut farms, who had become the latest victims in a gruesome, perplexing string of attacks.