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Tag: Tigray Crisis

Sentinel: ‘Extreme urgent need’: Starvation haunts Ethiopia’s Tigray

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

“There is an extreme urgent need — I don’t know what more words in English to use — to rapidly scale up the humanitarian response because the population is dying every day as we speak,” 

“It is a daily reality to hear people dying with the fighting consequences, lack of food,”

Hunger is “very concerning,” she said, and even water is scarce: Just two of 21 wells still work in Adigrat, a city of more than 140,000, forcing many people to drink from the river. With sanitation suffering, disease follows.

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Chron: ‘Extreme urgent need’: Starvation haunts Ethiopia’s Tigray

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

From “emaciated” refugees to crops burned on the brink of harvest, starvation threatens the survivors of more than two months of fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“There is an extreme urgent need — I don’t know what more words in English to use — to rapidly scale up the humanitarian response because the population is dying every day as we speak,” Mari Carmen Vinoles, head of the emergency unit for Doctors Without Borders, told the AP.

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Addis Standard: MEKELLE CITY INTERIM MAYOR ADMITS PRESENCE AND PARTICIPATION OF ERITREAN FORCES IN TIGRAY CONFLICT

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

In a video televised by Tigray TV, which is currently under the control of the federal government appointed interim administration in Tigray, Ataklit responds to questions from community members participating in a meeting. According to Ataklit, the question of the presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray was “a daily question of the interim administration,” and that “relevant military leaders have been asked to give explanations.”

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EEPA: Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 42

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Reports of rape of Tigray women as part of the violence carried out on civilians in Tigray.

Aid agencies say that they are still largely unable to access the rest of Tigray. No communications, damaged infrastructure and government restrictions have stopped them from reaching most areas in Tigray. The Ethiopian government is still refusing full access.

The report noted that “crimes against humanity of this nature combined with the current national context are signs that the risk of atrocity crimes, including genocide, is increasing”. They call for investigation and “a lasting institutional solution.”

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DW: Once enemies, Ethiopia and Eritrea ally against Tigray

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe
  • Eritrea has been involved in the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia from day one, experts have said. But even though the two countries are fighting together against a common enemy, that does not make them friends.
  • “The Eritrean regime has seen the TPLF as enemy for a long time, which is very ironic,” journalist and Eritrea expert Michela Wrong told DW.
  • “Isaias had rejected all peace negotiations,” said Tronvoll. “But when Abiy started to dismiss Tigrayan high officials in early June 2018, Isaias was happy to engage because it was game over for TPLF.”
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New York Times: Refugees Come Under Fire as Old Foes Fight in Concert in Ethiopia

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Forces from neighboring Eritrea have joined the war in northern Ethiopia, and have rampaged through refugee camps committing human rights violations, officials and witnesses say.

The deployment of Eritreans to Tigray is the newest element in a melee that has greatly tarnished Mr. Abiy’s once-glowing reputation. Only last year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with Mr. Isaias. Now it looks like the much-lauded peace deal between the former enemies in fact laid the groundwork for them to make war against Tigray, their mutual adversary.

“Abiy has invited a foreign country to fight against his own people,” said Awol Allo, a former Abiy supporter turned outspoken critic who lectures in law at Keele University in Britain. “The implications are huge.”

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Eritrea’s role in Tigray conflict

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Forces from neighboring Eritrea have joined the war in northern Ethiopia, and have rampaged through refugee camps committing human rights violations, officials and witnesses say.

BBC News: Eritrea’s role in Ethiopian conflict

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The New York Times: Refugees Come Under Fire as Old Foes Fight in Concert in Ethiopia

Forces from neighboring Eritrea have joined the war in northern Ethiopia, and have rampaged through refugee camps committing human rights violations, officials and witnesses say.

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‘I would never go back’: Accounts of atrocities grow in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict

The 54-year-old carpenter came bearing news of some 250 young men abducted to an unknown fate from a single village, Adi Aser, into neighboring Eritrea by Eritrean forces, whose involvement Ethiopia denies. Then in late November, Guesh said he saw dogs feeding on the bodies of civilians near his hometown of Rawyan, where he said Ethiopian soldiers beat him and took him to the border town of Humera.

In fact, according to interviews with two dozen aid workers, refugees, United Nations officials and diplomats — including a senior American official — Eritrean soldiers are fighting in Tigray, apparently in coordination with Mr. Abiy’s forces, and face credible accusations of atrocities against civilians. Among their targets were refugees who had fled Eritrea and its harsh leader, President Isaias Afwerki.

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VOA: Rights Groups Sound Alarm Over Safety of Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe
  • Eritreans are being rounded up and returned to war-torn Tigray or are being deported to their homeland.
  • Refugees said some people in the camps were being forcibly returned to Eritrea.
  • UNHCR’s emergency response team in Ethiopia, told VOA via email that his organization has not yet been granted access to return to the four refugee camps in Tigray
  • State Department spokesperson: Credible reports of Eritrean military involvement in Tigray and view this as a grave development.
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The Guardian: ‘Slaughtered like chickens’: Eritrea heavily involved in Tigray conflict, say eyewitnesses

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

Despite denials by Ethiopia, multiple reports confirm killings, looting and forcible return of refugees by Asmara’s forces

  • Residents had been “slaughtered like chicken”, the elders said, their corpses abandoned to be “eaten by hyenas”. They also spoke of rampant looting and vandalism: “All government assets have been destroyed and looted,” said one.
  • A spokesperson for the US state department later confirmed the details, marking a shift among US officials, who have previously praised Eritrea for its “restraint”. “We are aware of credible reports of Eritrean military involvement in Tigray and view this as a grave development,” said the spokesperson. “We urge that any such troops be withdrawn immediately.”
  • Mesfin Hagos, a former Eritrean defence minister turned opposition figure, said in an article for online publication African Arguments, that Isaias had deployed four mechanised divisions, seven infantry divisions and a commando brigade, citing sources in the defence ministry among others.
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TRTWORLD: US urges Eritrean troops to withdraw from Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe

“This is a grave development,” said a US State Department Spokesman, describing what it said were “credible reports” of Eritrean troops fighting alongside the Ethiopian army in the northern Tigray state against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). 

“We urge that any such troops be withdrawn immediately,” the spokesperson continued.

The TPLF accused the Ethiopian government of allowing the Eritreans to enter the conflict on ”several fronts”. Debtresion Gebremichael, ousted head of the Tigray state and TPLF chief also said his forces had captured Eritrean soldiers near Wikro, a town roughly 50km north of the Tigray capital Mekelle, though no evidence was shown.

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