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Source: ICRC

Operational update on escalating fighting in Tigray and northern Ethiopia

Red Cross Hotline

Addis Ababa / Geneva (ICRC) – In just two weeks, escalating fighting in Tigray and northern Ethiopia has triggered immense suffering and risks spiralling into a wider humanitarian crisis.

NEWS RELEASE 18 NOVEMBER 2020 ETHIOPIA SUDAN

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited health care facilities in Tigray and Amhara—many of them yet to receive any assistance—and found them in need of medical supplies and support to care for the influx of wounded. The Ethiopia Red Cross Society (ERCS) has transported hundreds of people injured in areas affected by clashes. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people have contacted the ICRC’s hotline and visited its office in Mekelle and Addis Ababa looking for help to reach their families.

As fighting continues, we are seeing a devastating humanitarian crisis unfold, not just within Ethiopia but across its borders

said Katia Sorin, ICRC’s head of delegation in Addis Ababa. “Thousands are crossing into Sudan seeking safety, and an untold number are displaced from their homes inside Ethiopia. The telecommunications blackout in Tigray has made it practically impossible for people to contact their family members, causing fear and anguish on the whereabouts and safety of their loved ones.”

The ICRC team visited three hospitals and one primary health care centre in North Amhara to better understand the needs and deliver medical supplies such as surgical materials and items used in trauma care, IV fluids, medicines and medical consumables. The team also provided hospital beds, mattresses, mats, and blankets. For many of these facilities it is the first time they have received any external support since the crisis started. The ICRC has also been assessing the needs at Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekelle.

The ERCS, one of the main ambulance providers in the area which has managed to evacuate hundreds of people with injuries, received first aid materials. Additional medical supplies and emergency medicines are being assembled in Nairobi and Addis Ababa to support other health-care facilities.

ICRC delegates were also granted access to people detained in relation to the fighting to verify their condition and provide essential hygiene and other items. At the same time, ICRC and ERCS teams in Mekelle are working at a local school to help those seeking to contact their families, mostly through short written messages.

Humanitarian concerns

Hospitals and primary health care centres in and around areas that have seen active fighting need medical supplies and support to care for the wounded. They also urgently need hospital beds, mattresses, blankets, and bed-sheets. Gonder Teaching Hospital has been receiving large numbers of critically injured patients with more than 400 people treated so far in the facility. The hospital is also catering to 14 COVID-19 patients, a signal of the strain health care facilities could increasingly be under to care for those with trauma injuries amidst a pandemic.

The crisis has also created supply chain disruption for routine medicines and medical consumables. Our office in Mekelle received an urgent request from Ayder Referral Hospital in Tigray for drugs and medical supplies to provide diabetic care and dialysis. The hospital is the only one in the region treating these conditions. These disruptions are also impacting communities, especially those such as refugees and internally displaced Ethiopians who are reliant on aid in Tigray.

Last week, three ambulances run by the Ethiopia Red Cross were attacked. The specific details behind these incidents are not clear, but it is a worrying sign that medical workers and first responders are not being respected and protected, which can have life-and-death consequences for those relying on them for care. Following this, the ERCS published a statement calling for the respect of the protective use of the Red Cross emblem and not to obstruct the humanitarian work of Ethiopian Red Cross volunteers, staff and other medical personnel.

Thousands of people are crossing into Sudan seeking safety, and an untold number of people are displaced inside Ethiopia. They will need food, shelter, water, and medical care as well as support to search for and contact their families.

The telecommunications blackout in Tigray is making it impossible for people to know if their loved ones are alive and safe. This is causing a lot of anguish and anxiety as people search for answers. We are inundated with hundreds of requests through our telephone hotline as well our office in Mekelle to help people get in touch with their relatives and loved ones.

We are concerned about the well-being of thousands of Eritrean refugees currently living in Tigray who need protection and assistance.

The fighting in Tigray comes on top of recurrent episodes of violence that have flared in different parts of Ethiopia. Many people have been killed, displaced, arrested and injured.

Operational notes

The ICRC team visited four health-care facilities, including one primary health-care centre and three hospitals in Gonder, Sanja, Abereha Jira, and Abderafi in North Amhara and provided supplies to care for serious and moderate injuries. Gonder University Hospital received mattresses, blankets, and mats for 200 patients.

The ERCS branch covering West, North and Central Gonder zones in Amhara has 10 ambulances that have transported hundreds of wounded people to different medical facilities so far. The ICRC provided the branch with first aid supplies to support their ambulance work.

The ICRC team is visiting people detained in connection to the fighting to assess their conditions of detention and treatment and to distribute basic hygiene items such as soap, disinfectant and jerry cans.

A hot-line has been setup to support those searching for their family members in Tigray together with the Ethiopia Red Cross. Our teams have received more than 1,000 phone calls in the last week from people in Ethiopia and abroad who are searching for their loved ones. Anyone searching for his or her family should call our hotline at +251 94 312 2207 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or the Ethiopia Red Cross at +251 11 552 7110.

ICRC set up a small service in a high school in Mekelle where more than 400 people have been helped to contact their families mostly through short messages called salamats. However, this is just skimming the surface of the true needs and the telecommunications blackout in Tigray makes it extremely difficult to search for and reconnect loved ones.

The ICRC is mobilising additional medical and relief supplies, including medical supplies to care for about 500 severely wounded, at its logistics hub in Nairobi as well as in Addis Ababa. These materials will make an immediate difference to hospitals and clinics struggling to care for patients’ routine and emergency needs.

An assessment team will travel to the Sudan-Ethiopia border this week to speak with refugees to better understand the needs, specifically pertaining to health care and family separation together with our partner the Sudanese Red Crescent.

The ICRC has a long presence in Ethiopia and has been responding to needs created by violence in other parts of the country such as Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, Amhara, and Somali Regional State. The ICRC maintains a bilateral, confidential dialogue with weapon-bearers to ensure that those involved in fighting comply with their obligations under international law.

Source: The Economist

“I SAW THE dust clouds covering the sky,” said a young university lecturer, describing the bombing by a government warplane of a resort on the outskirts of Alamata, a small town in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray. In normal times Alamata is known for its beautiful green mountains. Now it is a battleground in Ethiopia’s civil war, which broke out on November 4th between the federal government and Tigray’s rulers, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

As he fled towards Afar, a neighbouring state, the lecturer saw lorries carrying federal soldiers driving the other way. By the time the convoy reached Alamata, it was almost deserted. Most Tigrayan civilians had already left and Tigrayan armed forces were retreating into the mountains.

On November 16th the federal government said its forces had captured Alamata, which is on Tigray’s eastern border and about 120km from the regional capital of Mekelle. It also claimed to have captured key territory in western Tigray. This suggests the Ethiopian army has been attacking on at least two fronts since it was ordered into action by Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, to put down what he claimed was an armed revolt by the TPLF. But it is far too soon to suggest that these early victories herald a short or easily contained war. In fact, the opposite. As the TPLF has faced setbacks on its borders, it appears to have tried to widen the conflict, perhaps in a gamble that this will increase international pressure on the federal government to agree to peace talks, and that it will give the TPLF cards to play once the negotiations start. On November 14th it fired rockets over the border at Asmara, the capital of neighbouring Eritrea.

The attack threatens to drag Eritrea into conflict in Ethiopia barely two years after the two countries made peace. “It was a legitimate target,” says Debretsion Gebremichael, Tigray’s president. “Ethiopian forces were using Asmara airport.” He also claimed Tigrayan forces were fending off 16 Eritrean divisions on several fronts. Others are less convinced. Tibor Nagy, America’s senior diplomat for Africa, condemned the TPLF’s “unjustifiable attacks against Eritrea” and its “efforts to internationalise the conflict”.

The Eritrean government denies any involvement in Ethiopia’s conflict. But few doubt that its president, Isaias Afwerki, would like to see the Tigrayans routed. His bad blood with the TPLF dates back to the 1980s, when he was an Eritrean rebel fighting alongside the TPLF against the communist Derg regime, which fell in 1991. Between 1998 and 2000, the newly independent Eritrea fought a bitter border war against Ethiopia, then dominated by the TPLF, that cost perhaps 100,000 lives. Debretsion (as well as some eyewitnesses) claim that Eritrean soldiers have been involved in fighting near the border in recent days. At a minimum, retreating Ethiopian troops have been allowed to regroup on Eritrean soil before returning to battle.

The TPLF has also struck within Ethiopia, firing rockets at two airports in Amhara, the second-most-populous of Ethiopia’s ten ethnically-based regional states. Thousands of Amhara militiamen, mostly farmers with rusty kalashnikovs, have marched towards Tigray. They are fighting alongside the federal army to push Tigrayan forces out of disputed towns near the state border. The involvement of these regional militias in a country as divided as Ethiopia is a recipe for ethnic bloodletting. There are some signs that this has already started. Possibly hundreds of civilians, many of them Amharas, were hacked to death with machetes and knives on November 9th in Mai Kadra, according to Amnesty International. Some witnesses said that forces loyal to the TPLF were responsible for the killings, though Amnesty was unable to confirm this. Tigrayan refugees fleeing into Sudan from the same district told Reuters that they had been attacked by people from Amhara. As many as 25,000 people have sought refuge in Sudan.

Fears the war could fan ethnic conflagration in other parts of Ethiopia have been further heightened by the harassment of Tigrayans in the national capital, Addis Ababa, and elsewhere. Many Tigrayans in the security services, civil service and state institutions have been told not to come into work. Possibly hundreds have been detained. Ordinary Tigrayans have been turned away from international flights at the airport in Addis Ababa and told they cannot leave the country. Local IDs in Ethiopia typically reveal citizen’s ethnic background, and airport staff have instructed Ethiopian nationals to show them.

Both sides to the conflict may have hoped it would be over quickly. After the TPLF ordered its troops to fire the first shots with an attack on a camp housing federal troops in Mekelle, they described it as an act of “anticipatory self-defence”. Abiy’s government, for its part, has insisted it is involved in a policing operation aimed at “enforcing the rule of law”. But bad blood, and a lack of trust, between the two sides runs deep. The TPLF, which called the shots in the federal government for almost 30 years, has yet to come to terms with its dethroning in 2018 after massive protests brought Abiy to power. Following his appointment as prime minister, Abiy sidelined the TPLF and began removing Tigrayans from state institutions, in particular the army and intelligence agency in which they wielded outsized influence given that they make up less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population. He later accused the TPLF of undermining Ethiopia’s fragile transition to democracy by arming opposition groups (though he provided no real evidence for this claim) and of flouting federal law.

Tensions worsened when the central government postponed elections earlier this year, citing covid-19. The TPLF accused Abiy of breaking the constitution in order to stay in power and went ahead with its own regional election in September. The federal government deemed it illegal and proceeded to slash federal funding to the region. The TPLF called this a “declaration of war”.

Two weeks into the actual war, the TPLF seems a little less keen on fighting it. Debretsion has called on the African Union and UN to condemn the Ethiopian offensive. But Abiy’s government says it will not enter talks or mediation until the TPLF disarms. His government has issued arrest warrants for TPLF leaders including Debretsion. It has also switched off the internet and telephone network in Tigray and blocked food and medical supplies. Federal warplanes have been hammering arms stores and oil depots, and may well have hit some civilians too. Many Ethiopians hope the war will be over by Christmas. There are few signs that it will be.