GENOCIDE BY ANY OTHER NAME
Ethiopia denies trying to ‘suffocate’ Tigray regionBy CARA ANNA
JULY 2, 2021
A destroyed bridge over the Tekeze River is seen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia Thursday, July 1, 2021. The bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray that is crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday. (Roger Sandberg/Medical Teams International via AP)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s government on Friday rejected accusations that it’s trying to “suffocate” the people of Tigray by denying them urgently needed food and other aid, as transport and communications links remained severed to the region that faces the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.
Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen spoke to reporters a day after a bridge that’s crucial for accessing much of the region of 6 million people was destroyed and the United Nations indicated that special forces from the neighboring Amhara region were to blame. Amhara authorities have occupied western Tigray and forced out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans.
“The insinuation that we are trying to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale. There is absolutely no reason for us to do so. These are our people,” Demeke said.
Ethiopia’s government blamed Tigray forces for the bridge’s destruction. But an aid worker who travelled to the site said area residents described to him how they saw Amhara special forces placing objects on the bridge and driving away after the blast. “They still seemed in shock at what had happened,” Roger Sandberg, vice president of field operations with Medical Teams International, told The Associated Press.
Sandberg said area residents also told him that there was no other way to cross, while Tigray forces conveyed to him that they wouldn’t obstruct NGO access to the region.
Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen spoke to reporters a day after a bridge that’s crucial for accessing much of the region of 6 million people was destroyed and the United Nations indicated that special forces from the neighboring Amhara region were to blame. Amhara authorities have occupied western Tigray and forced out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans.
“The insinuation that we are trying to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale. There is absolutely no reason for us to do so. These are our people,” Demeke said.
Ethiopia’s government blamed Tigray forces for the bridge’s destruction. But an aid worker who travelled to the site said area residents described to him how they saw Amhara special forces placing objects on the bridge and driving away after the blast. “They still seemed in shock at what had happened,” Roger Sandberg, vice president of field operations with Medical Teams International, told The Associated Press.
Sandberg said area residents also told him that there was no other way to cross, while Tigray forces conveyed to him that they wouldn’t obstruct NGO access to the region.
The U.N. Security Council was meeting to discuss Tigray on Friday.
In a stunning turn earlier this week, Ethiopia declared a unilateral cease-fire on humanitarian grounds while retreating from Tigray forces. But the government faces growing international pressure as it continues to cut off the region from the rest of the world. Aid workers say fuel and other supplies are running low.
In a strikingly outspoken statement, the World Food Program said on Friday that a second key bridge leading into Tigray was destroyed on Thursday, while no WFP flights bringing in U.N. or other aid workers have been allowed by Ethiopia since June 22.
Even before the bridges were destroyed, at least 3,800 metric tons of food had been blocked from reaching parts of western Tigray, WFP emergency coordinator Tommy Thompson told reporters in Geneva. He warned that “more people will die” if access doesn’t materialize, but added that an air bridge might be set up in coming days.
The U.N. agency said trucks are loaded and ready to replenish its nearly-exhausted food stocks inside Tigray, where 5.2 million people need emergency food aid. “We’ll be out of food in the northwest by this weekend,” Thompson said.
Up to 900,000 people in Tigray are facing famine conditions, the United States has said. A new U.N. humanitarian update issued late Thursday said that “the blackout of electricity, telecommunications, and internet throughout Tigray region will only exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation.”
In a stunning turn earlier this week, Ethiopia declared a unilateral cease-fire on humanitarian grounds while retreating from Tigray forces. But the government faces growing international pressure as it continues to cut off the region from the rest of the world. Aid workers say fuel and other supplies are running low.
In a strikingly outspoken statement, the World Food Program said on Friday that a second key bridge leading into Tigray was destroyed on Thursday, while no WFP flights bringing in U.N. or other aid workers have been allowed by Ethiopia since June 22.
Even before the bridges were destroyed, at least 3,800 metric tons of food had been blocked from reaching parts of western Tigray, WFP emergency coordinator Tommy Thompson told reporters in Geneva. He warned that “more people will die” if access doesn’t materialize, but added that an air bridge might be set up in coming days.
The U.N. agency said trucks are loaded and ready to replenish its nearly-exhausted food stocks inside Tigray, where 5.2 million people need emergency food aid. “We’ll be out of food in the northwest by this weekend,” Thompson said.
Up to 900,000 people in Tigray are facing famine conditions, the United States has said. A new U.N. humanitarian update issued late Thursday said that “the blackout of electricity, telecommunications, and internet throughout Tigray region will only exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation.”
Ethiopia’s foreign minister said the government has a roadmap for dialogue to resolve the Tigray crisis that’s expected to include “rank and file members of the (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) who show readiness to choose a peaceful path.” But Tigray forces, recently designated by Ethiopia as a terrorist group, now control most of the region and have demanded that Ethiopia resumes basic services before any talks.
“A cease-fire doesn’t mean cutting a region off power or destroying critical infrastructure,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted on Friday. “A credible cease-fire means doing everything possible so that aid reaches the millions of children, women and men who urgently need it.”
The security situation in Tigray was generally calm after the retreat of Ethiopian forces and those of neighboring Eritrea, who have been accused by witnesses of some of the worst atrocities in the war. Officials with Eritrea, an enemy of Tigray leaders after a 1998-2000 war along their border, have not responded to requests for comment.
Amhara authorities have warned Tigray forces against trying to retake the region’s western areas. But the Tigray forces spokesman told the AP this week they would “liberate” the region from “enemies,” and thousands of fighters were seen heading west.
Ethiopia’s government has said the cease-fire will last only until the crucial farming season in Tigray is over, meaning September. But the WFP said farmers have already missed the peak planting month of June because of seed and fertilizer shortages.
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Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
Bridge key to delivering aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray destroyed
By CARA ANNA
By CARA ANNA
July 1, 2021
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A bridge that’s crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday as Tigray fighters were said to be approaching other combatants occupying large areas nearby.
The destruction of the bridge over the Tekeze River “means aid efforts will be even more severely hampered than before,“ the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. Tigray has the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, with the United States saying up to 900,000 people face famine conditions in a situation it calls “entirely man-made.”
It was not immediately clear who destroyed the bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray, which is occupied by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, and the rest of Tigray.
Aid groups were looking into reports of other key bridges destroyed. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s government has prohibited aircraft to fly below 29,000 feet within the airspace over Tigray, according to a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration notice posted Wednesday.
The Tigray forces, emboldened after retaking the regional capital this week in a stunning turn in the eight-month war with Ethiopia’s military, have taken control of key towns this week, and several thousand of its fighters had been seen to be moving west.
The spokesman for the Tigray forces this week told The Associated Press they would “liberate” the region from “enemies” including the Ethiopian forces, Amhara forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.
Ethiopia’s government, under pressure from battlefield losses amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war, this week declared an immediate and unilateral cease-fire. Witnesses have seen Eritrean forces retreating toward the border Eritrea shares with Tigray.
Amhara authorities have warned the Tigray forces against trying to retake western areas. The Amhara regional spokesman, Gizachew Muluneh, told the AP an investigation would be carried out into the bridge’s destruction. Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane said that “we have the information about it but it will be disclosed in a press conference.”
The bridge’s destruction is “disastrous,” tweeted the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. There are just four main roads into the Tigray region of 6 million people and now only one “might be passable,” Samantha Power said, since one is blocked by Amhara forces and another by fighting.
FILE - In this Friday, May 7, 2021 file photo, fighters loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) greet each other on the street in the town of Hawzen, then-controlled by the group but later re-taken by government forces, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The Tigray forces that in late June 2021 have retaken key areas after fierce fighting have rejected the cease-fire and vowed to chase out Ethiopian government forces and those of neighboring Eritrea. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
The destruction of the bridge over the Tekeze River “means aid efforts will be even more severely hampered than before,“ the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. Tigray has the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade, with the United States saying up to 900,000 people face famine conditions in a situation it calls “entirely man-made.”
It was not immediately clear who destroyed the bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray, which is occupied by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, and the rest of Tigray.
Aid groups were looking into reports of other key bridges destroyed. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s government has prohibited aircraft to fly below 29,000 feet within the airspace over Tigray, according to a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration notice posted Wednesday.
The Tigray forces, emboldened after retaking the regional capital this week in a stunning turn in the eight-month war with Ethiopia’s military, have taken control of key towns this week, and several thousand of its fighters had been seen to be moving west.
The spokesman for the Tigray forces this week told The Associated Press they would “liberate” the region from “enemies” including the Ethiopian forces, Amhara forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.
Ethiopia’s government, under pressure from battlefield losses amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war, this week declared an immediate and unilateral cease-fire. Witnesses have seen Eritrean forces retreating toward the border Eritrea shares with Tigray.
Amhara authorities have warned the Tigray forces against trying to retake western areas. The Amhara regional spokesman, Gizachew Muluneh, told the AP an investigation would be carried out into the bridge’s destruction. Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane said that “we have the information about it but it will be disclosed in a press conference.”
The bridge’s destruction is “disastrous,” tweeted the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. There are just four main roads into the Tigray region of 6 million people and now only one “might be passable,” Samantha Power said, since one is blocked by Amhara forces and another by fighting.
TIGRAY FIGHTERS
France’s U.N. ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said the body would “most likely” hold an open meeting Friday afternoon on developments in Tigray that would include political and humanitarian briefings.
He said at a news conference that the council should again demand humanitarian access to Tigray and compliance by the parties with human rights, which have been violated during the conflict.
Humanitarian aid groups have been badly constrained in Tigray, with electricity and communications links still cut in the region. The Tigray fighters, who had long dominated Ethiopia’s government and military before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have demanded the return of services to the region as a condition of any peace negotiations.
In a recent case of blocking aid, a 29-truck convoy carrying World Food Program supplies was denied access and had to return to the Amhara region earlier this week, a U.N. humanitarian worker said. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
A WFP spokesman, Peter Smerdon, told the AP the Tekeze bridge’s destruction “will have an impact, but we are currently assessing how much of an impact and whether there is an alternative route we could use to bring in urgently needed food stocks from Gondar to our warehouses in Shire.”
He did not say how soon those Shire warehouses would be empty if a supply route cannot be found. The rainy season now beginning in Tigray will further complicate matters.
The cease-fire is limited; Ethiopia’s government has said it will last only until the end of the crucial farming season in Tigray, which means September.
France’s U.N. ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said the body would “most likely” hold an open meeting Friday afternoon on developments in Tigray that would include political and humanitarian briefings.
He said at a news conference that the council should again demand humanitarian access to Tigray and compliance by the parties with human rights, which have been violated during the conflict.
Humanitarian aid groups have been badly constrained in Tigray, with electricity and communications links still cut in the region. The Tigray fighters, who had long dominated Ethiopia’s government and military before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have demanded the return of services to the region as a condition of any peace negotiations.
In a recent case of blocking aid, a 29-truck convoy carrying World Food Program supplies was denied access and had to return to the Amhara region earlier this week, a U.N. humanitarian worker said. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
A WFP spokesman, Peter Smerdon, told the AP the Tekeze bridge’s destruction “will have an impact, but we are currently assessing how much of an impact and whether there is an alternative route we could use to bring in urgently needed food stocks from Gondar to our warehouses in Shire.”
He did not say how soon those Shire warehouses would be empty if a supply route cannot be found. The rainy season now beginning in Tigray will further complicate matters.
The cease-fire is limited; Ethiopia’s government has said it will last only until the end of the crucial farming season in Tigray, which means September.
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