Ethiopia announces ‘indefinite humanitarian pause’ to allow aid into Tigray
On Thursday, the Ethiopian government announced an “indefinite humanitarian truce will take effect immediately,” saying it hopes to help speed up the delivery of emergency aid to the Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands are facing starvation.
Since war broke out in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, thousands have been killed, and many more forced to flee their homes as the conflict has spread from Tigray to neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.
It said in a statement that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government “is committed to making every effort to facilitate the free flow of emergency humanitarian aid into the Tigray region.”
“To improve the success of the humanitarian truce, the government calls on the rebels in Tigray to desist from all further acts of aggression and to withdraw from the areas they have occupied in the neighboring areas,” the statement read.
“The Government of Ethiopia hopes that this armistice will significantly improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and pave the way for resolving the conflict in northern Ethiopia without further bloodshed.”
The conflict erupted when Abiy sent troops to Tigray to oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the former ruling party in the region, saying the move was in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
The fighting has continued for more than a year, causing a humanitarian crisis, with accounts of mass rapes and massacres emerging, with both sides accused of human rights abuses.
Tigray itself was subject to what the United Nations says is a de facto blockade.
The United States accused Abiy’s government of preventing aid from reaching those in need, while the authorities, in turn, blamed the rebels for obstructing it.
The United Nations said in January that nearly 40 percent of the population of Tigray, a region of six million people, faced “acute food shortages”.
In the meantime, humanitarian organizations have been forced to reduce their activities increasingly due to the lack of fuel and supplies.
The government had earlier declared a “unilateral ceasefire” in Tigray in June last year, after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front retook the area from federal forces. But the fighting intensified in the second half of 2021 before reaching a stalemate.
(AFP)
