November 3rd marked one year of Civil War in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government, supported by neighbouring Eritrea, has been fighting to quash the ethnic nationalist Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) since November 2020. The TPLF were in charge of Ethiopia for almost 30 years, from the overthrow of the previous dictatorship in 1992, until they were replaced by current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed following 2018 protests. The most recent news coming out of Ethiopia is that the TPLF are leading a counteroffensive on the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded by declaring a state of emergency, calling upon citizens “to take up arms to block the fighters’ advance.”
In early November, a joint investigation by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reported that all parties to the conflict have committed serious human rights violations that may amount to war crimes. The report focused on mass killings and rape. However, some news agencies have questioned the completeness of the report. For instance, Reuters reported that there were many mass killings documented by news agencies, civil societies, and human rights groups that were not investigated by the joint commission or mentioned in the report.
One of the key issues being reported is starvation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Interviewing Pod Save the World host Tommy Vietor in November, CNN Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir reported that roughly 400,000 Tigrayans currently face starvation. An additional two million are on the precipice. However, she added that these are rough estimates, as the Ethiopian government is obstructing journalists and international agencies from gathering data.
The response from the international community has been slow. The BBC reports that the first accounts of hunger and starvation in Tigray’s villages were made in January. In June, one village reported that 125 people had starved to death. The international community has, therefore, been aware of the issue for some time. In June 2021, the UN Famine Review Committee assessed the situation in Tigray and made a series of projections for the coming months. The most serious of which saw a lack of humanitarian aid, and the war escalating. The recommendations coming out of the report included the continued gathering of data and another full assessment within three months.
However, this did not happen. Commitments to humanitarian aid have also been slow. In mid-November, the UN released $40 million in aid to the Tigray region and the rest of northern Ethiopia to address the humanitarian crisis, but many are questioning the efficacy of this initiative. The BBC reported that obstructions caused by fighting and bureaucratic delays meant that aid trucks were unable to enter Tigray through the Afar region, dubbed “the only viable overland route into Tigray” between October 18th and November 25th. CNN correspondent Nima Elbagir highlighted that the depletion of resources in Tigray means that at least 140 trucks of resources are needed each day. Still, the Ethiopian government is restricting access to fuel and obstructing the transfer of cash into the region. Aid organizations, therefore, require authorization from the Ethiopian government to fuel their trucks and transfer cash, which is a long and costly process.
Aid is also being obstructed by the TPLF. In early December, the UN World Food Programme was forced to suspend operations in the northern towns of Kombolcha and Dessie after armed Tigrayan forces looted its warehouses. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric stated, “Such harassment of humanitarian staff by armed forces is unacceptable. It undermines the ability of the United Nations and all of our humanitarian partners to deliver assistance when it is most needed.” He added that humanitarian trucks had reportedly been commandeered. The looting of aid resources prevents it from reaching those most in need, thus prolonging the suffering.
The UN now estimates that 9.4 million people across the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions of Ethiopia require critical food assistance. Estimates project that $350 million in aid is needed by December to address the suffering in Tigray. The UN and international community must do more to stop the conflict and associated humanitarian suffering in Ethiopia. Providing more humanitarian aid is key, but the international community must do more than this. They must ensure that the aid provided reaches those that require it.
This will be difficult given the Ethiopian government’s attempts to restrict access to Tigray along with the obstacles and insecurity that aid workers on the ground are facing from both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF. The international community must also hold the Ethiopian government and the TPLF to account. Throughout the crisis, the government has blamed the TPLF for hunger and starvation, claiming that Tigrayan advances are blocking humanitarian aid routes. This is an accusation that the TPLF denies. The UN and international community must use peaceful means to place pressure upon the Ethiopian government to allow aid to reach those in need.
Starvation in the Tigray region is one of many issues being reported in Ethiopia. Atrocities have been committed by both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF. We call upon the international community to step up its efforts to solve the crisis through peaceful means in order to put an end to the conflict and associated humanitarian suffering in Ethiopia.
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