JULY 1, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWSTIGRAY

Washington calls Ethiopia’s temporary ceasefire in region a ‘promising development’

Millions have been displaced in Tigray due to the fighting and about 350,000 are facing famine. AFP

The US government on Tuesday expressed cautious optimism after the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Tigray, but said that with Eritrean troops still in the region, the temporary ceasefire remains fragile.

“This is a promising development and we welcome it,” Robert Godec, acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the Biden administration’s first comment on the withdrawal.

But he added that “it is essential now that all parties commit to the ceasefire, allow humanitarian access, protect civilians, have independent investigations into atrocities so that there is justice for the victims.”

Last November, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, backed by Eritrean troops and allied militias, launched a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Since then, more than two million civilians have been internally displaced and 5.2 million people in the region are in urgent need of food, the UN said.

Mr Abiy, who has been under international pressure to end the fighting, ordered the withdrawal on Monday.

But US officials say Eritrean forces remain in the war-torn region.

“We have seen some indications of movement but we don’t know yet if they are withdrawing,” Mr Godec told members of Congress. “They have committed horrifying atrocities, that much is clear.

“The Eritrean forces need to leave immediately — that is absolutely necessary if there is going to be peace or the restoration of civil order and stability in Tigray and more generally in Ethiopia.”

A UN report released this month detailed grave human rights abuses committed by Eritrean troops in Tigray.

The international body has received information that Eritrean soldiers have carried out “deliberate attacks against civilians and summary executions, indiscriminate attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary detention, destruction and looting of civilian property and displacement, and the abduction of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers.”

Mr Godec described the Eritrean forces’ role as “malign” and made clear that their failure to withdraw could bring more US sanctions on Asmara.

“If the [Ethiopian] government’s announcement does not result in improvements and the situation continues to worsen, Ethiopia and Eritrea should anticipate further action,” he said.

Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Centre, saw Eritrea as an easy target for US sanctions if it does not pull out its troops.

“Eritrea has been accused of some of the worst human rights violations against civilians in this conflict, and given their pariah status, sanctioning them for their actions would not come at a high cost to Washington,” Mr Hudson told The National.

This is in contrast to Ethiopia, which “Washington has held out hope … could return to being a reliable and stable partner in the region.”

Mr Abiy’s forces have recently lost ground to the TPLF, leading the expert to argue that Ethiopia’s withdrawal was more of a “tactical retreat” and a realisation that the tide is turning against it in the conflict.

“These government announcements mask a hard reality that the Tigrayans were turning the tide in the conflict … faced with a ‘leave it or lose it’ choice, Abiy Ahmed left and is now hoping to gain the upper hand by framing his actions as a humanitarian gesture,” Mr Hudson said.

The UN estimates about 350,000 people in Tigray are facing famine, including roughly 30,000 children that are now considered malnourished.

Eritrea.LIBERTY magazine issue NO.69

Thursday, 01 July 2021 22:20 Written by

JUNE 30, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWSTIGRAY

Source: New York Times

Credit…Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times

  • June 29, 2021

As Tigrayan forces celebrated returned control over their regional capital, Mekelle, there was mostly silence from senior Ethiopian officials back in the nation’s capital, Addis Ababa.

As Ethiopian troops left Mekelle and other parts of the Tigray region, the country’s foreign affairs ministry described the retreat as an act of humanitarian good will, saying the government had declared a unilateral cease-fire in order to alleviate the suffering from a looming famine.

“The federal government understands that the people of Tigray, especially those in rural areas, have suffered greatly,” the statement said.

Diplomats briefed on the discussions underway in Addis Ababa said that senior officials within Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government were at odds on how to proceed after claims from senior Tigrayan officials that they would keep fighting Ethiopian troops and their allied Amhara ethnic militias and Eritrean military forces.

Eritrean forces joined with Ethiopia last year in shelling and invading the Tigray region, and still hold territory within the Ethiopian region. They have been accused of some of the worst in a long list of human rights abuses there in recent months.

Now, two senior Western officials said that Eritrean officials were genuinely concerned that the Tigrayans could reverse the tide of the conflict by invading Eritrea. They said that avoiding another escalation would be the focus for intensive diplomatic efforts.

The effort is expected to include influential African emissaries in the coming days to try to head off more conflict, the officials said.

In Washington, Robert Godec, acting assistant secretary of state for the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, said on Tuesday that the Biden administration welcomed the Ethiopian government’s decision to declare a temporary end to hostilities.

“We will watch closely to determine if the cease-fire results in changes on the ground,” he said. “It is essential now that all parties commit to the cease-fire, allow humanitarian access, protect civilians, there be independent investigations into atrocities, and that there is justice for victims.”

“We will not stand by in the face of horrors in Tigray,” he added.

JUNE 28, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWS

Ethiopian Forces Retreat in Tigray, and Rebels Enter the Capital

After months of civil war and government occupation, Tigrayan rebels have pushed a counterattack that quickly brought them to Mekelle’s doorstep. Times journalists are there.

Credit…Ben Curtis/Associated Press

Declan Walsh and 

June 28, 2021Updated 4:52 p.m. ET

MEKELLE, Ethiopia — In a major turn in Ethiopia’s eight-month civil war in the northern Tigray region, Tigrayan fighters began entering the regional capital Monday night after Ethiopian government troops retreated from the city.

The Ethiopian military has occupied the Tigray region since last November, after invading in cooperation with Eritrean and militia forces to wrest control from the regional government. The Tigrayan forces, known as the Tigray Defense Forces, spent months regrouping and recruiting new fighters, and then in the past week began a rolling counterattack back toward the capital, Mekelle.

New York Times journalists in Mekelle saw thousands of residents take to the streets on Monday night, waving flags and shooting off fireworks after hearing that Tigrayan forces had advanced to the city.

The Tigrayans’ rapid advance was a significant setback for the government of Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who had declared when he sent his forces into the restive Tigray region last year that the operation would be over in a matter of weeks.

Sisay Hagos, a 36-year-old who was celebrating in Mekelle on Monday, said: “They invaded us. Abiy is a liar and a dictator, but he is defeated already. Tigray will be an independent country!”

A senior interim official who had been installed in Tigray by the federal government confirmed that Tigrayan forces had entered the city and had seized control of the airport and telecommunications network. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals.

Ethiopia’s government said Monday that it had called a unilateral cease-fire in Tigray. It was not immediately clear, however, whether Tigrayan forces had accepted the truce.

Refugees and international observers have accused the invading forces of wide-ranging atrocities, including ethnic cleansing, and of pushing the region to the brink of famine.

But from the outset, the party in control of Tigray’s regional government, known as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or T.P.L.F., which for many years was the ruling party in Ethiopia, has vowed to resist.

Soldiers belonging to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces were seen leaving Mekelle in vehicles throughout the day on Monday, some of them with looted materials, according to international and aid workers. Soldiers also entered the compound of Unicef and the World Food Program, and disconnected the internet, they said. Shops in the city closed early.

Credit…Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times

On Monday afternoon, the headquarters of the interim government in Tigray were eerily deserted. The only person in the building was a woman working in the cafeteria while her children played on a phone.

Outside the building, federal police officers were seen throwing their belongings onto waiting buses and hastily getting ready to leave.

At the Axum Hotel, where some of the interim leaders had been staying, a receptionist said that the officials had checked out on Sunday and left. By Monday, some of them were already back in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The Ethiopian government has kept up a harsh communications blackout from Tigray, and for months it was unclear what was going on in the region aside from scattered reports of continued fighting, and a growing stream of reports of rape, extrajudicial killings and other atrocities as victims came into Mekelle for treatment.

That shifted over the past week, as escalating violence and troop movements in Tigray made clear that the Tigrayan forces were on the counterattack. Heavy weapons were part of the fighting on both sides, and key towns reportedly changed hands among Ethiopian, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces, U.N. security documents show.

Last Tuesday, dozens of people were killed when a government airstrike hit a market in another part of Tigray and killed dozens of people, medics and witnesses said, in one of the deadliest single incidents of the eight-month civil war.

Just a day later, Tigrayan rebels struck back, downing an Ethiopian Air Force C-130 cargo plane as it approached Mekelle. In the days since, reports of rebel victories and Ethiopian government retreats began increasing.

Ethiopian forces reportedly abandoned a number of strategic positions around Adigrat, Abiy Adiy and in several locations in southern Tigray. The rebels also say they have captured several thousand Ethiopian soldiers and are holding them as prisoners of war.

Though the Tigrayans appear to have the upper hand, for now, around Mekelle, the picture in the rest of the region is still murky.

Despite Eritrea’s announcement in March that it would withdraw its forces from Tigray, Eritrean troops have continued to be a factor in the fighting. Eritrean forces have been spotted by aid workers throughout the Tigray Region, from towns in the far north west to dwellings in central areas of the region, where they have bolstered federal forces loyal to Mr. Abiy for months.

Credit…Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It was also unclear whether diplomatic efforts by other countries were having an effect on the action in Tigray. On Saturday, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen, met with several senior diplomats from Britain, Germany, the United States and Spain in Addis Ababa, according to two diplomats briefed on the talks. The diplomats said those talks did not reach any consensus on the need for a cease-fire in Tigray.

Getachew Reda, an executive member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, said in a telephone interview last week that Tigrayan forces — which have mushroomed with thousands of new volunteers — had gone on the offensive, targeting four Ethiopian army divisions.

“We have launched an offensive at the divisions which we believed were critical,” Mr. Getachew said. “At the same time, they have abandoned many towns and cities.”

Declan Walsh reported from Mekelle, Ethiopia, and Simon Marks from Brussels, Belgium.

JUNE 25, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWSTIGRAY

Source: MSF

MSF: HORRIFIED BY THE BRUTAL MURDER OF THREE MSF COLLEAGUES IN ETHIOPIA

Today we are in mourning after receiving confirmation of the death of three of our colleagues who we were working in Tigray. Maria Hernandez, our emergency coordinator, Yohannes Halefom Reda, our assistant coordinator and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael our driver were travelling yesterday afternoon when we lost contact with them. This morning the vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies.

No words can  truly convey all our sadness, shock and outrage against this horrific attack,  nor will it soothe the loss and suffering of their families and loved ones to whom we relay our deepest sympathy and condolences.

We condemn this attack on our colleagues in the strongest possible terms and will be relentless in understanding what happened. Maria, Yohaness and Tedros were in Tigray providing assistance to people and it is unthinkable that they paid for this work with their lives. We are in close contact with their families and ask for the utmost respect and privacy for them at this incredibly difficult time

Maria Hernandez, 35, from Madrid, started her MSF work in 2015 in the Central African Republic and had since worked in Yemen, Mexico and Nigeria. Yohannes Halefom Reda, a coordination assistant, was 31 and from Ethiopia and joined the organisation in February. Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, 31, also from Ethiopia, had been a driver for MSF since May.

The death of Maria, Yohannes and Tedros is a devastating blow to all of us who are part of the organisation both in Ethiopia and in the other countries where MSF operates around the world. We share a deep sense of sadness, outrage and dismay, and are deeply sorry for their families.

JUNE 25, 2021  NEWS

The Eritrean Ministry of Health accepts that the Covid-19 pandemic is on a rising trend. [See article below]

But is it more serious than this cautious announcement suggests?

Britain has just added Eritrea to its “Red List” – the highest, requiring the strictest quarantine system for anyone arriving from Eritrea in the UK.

The graph from Our World in Data suggests a clear upward trend but it is based on official information.

How reliable is this? Given the number of Eritrean troops now fighting in Ethiopia, and the travel and close contact that this involves, the rise may not be surprising.

Announcement from the Ministry of Health

Sixty-one patients have been diagnosed positive for COVID-19 in tests carried out today at Quarantine Centers in the Central, Anseba, and Southern Red Sea Regions.

Out of these, forty-one patients are from Quarantine Centers in Asmara, Central Region. Nineteen patients are from the Quarantine Centers in Keren, Anseba Region. The last patient is from Quarantine Center in Idi, Southern Red Sea Region.

On the other hand, 69 patients who have been receiving medical treatment in hospitals in the Central (58) and Northern Red Sea (11) Regions have recovered fully and have been discharged from these facilities.

The total number of recovered patients to-date has accordingly risen to 5147, while the number of deaths stands at 21.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country to-date has increased to 5,664.

Ministry of Health
Asmara

24 June 2021

Brussels, 23/06/2021 - 19:01, UNIQUE ID: 210623_24

The reports on the bombing of a market place in the village of Edaga Selus near Togoga in the Dogua Tembien District of the Tigray Region on

22 June are extremely worrying.

This is yet another attack adding up to the horrific series of International Humanitarian Law and human rights violations, atrocities, ethnic violence,

combined with serious allegations of use of starvation and sexual violence as weapons of  conflict.

The EU strongly condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians. This is not justifiable in any terms and goes against International Humanitarian Law.

Those atrocities cannot be justified by using the preservation of the territorial integrity of Ethiopia as an argument.

If confirmed, the blocking of ambulances trying to provide medical assistance to the wounded after the bombardment is unacceptable.

Such practice constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Convention and of International Humanitarian Law.

We re-iterate the urgent call for an immediate ceasefire in Tigray and for unrestricted humanitarian access to all those affected by the conflict in the region.

What is happening in Tigray is appalling. It is time for the international community to wake up and take action.

The High Representative has put Ethiopia on the agenda of the next Foreign Affairs Council in July to discuss with Member States EU actions in response.

JUNE 23, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWSTIGRAY

Source: Just Security

With Deliberate Famine Threatening Millions, Tigray Demands Greater Action from the US

by  and 

June 21, 2021

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed began what he called a “law enforcement operation” against the Tigray Regional Government last November. Seven months later, it has turned into an internationalized civil war involving troops from neighboring Eritrea. The conflict has significantly destabilized the Horn of Africa. It has indirectly instigated a border war between Ethiopia and Sudan, as well as contributed to the escalation of rivalry between Egypt and Ethiopia over Ethiopia’s construction of the GERD dam on the Nile River. Numerous war crimes have been documented by rights groups. And the United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock just declared famine in Tigray and said that starvation was being used as a weapon of war by Ethiopia and Eritrea. As a consequence of this, an estimated 350,000 are currently living in famine conditions, and 2 million more are in danger of soon being in the same situation.

A Nobel Prize laureate, Abiy may be in the process of committing mass murder on a scale not seen in many decades. Lawmakers from the United States and the United Kingdom have called the atrocities committed by Ethiopia “genocidal.” While the U.S. government was initially slow to react, it has recently taken on a critical leadership role in managing the crisis. As this man-made famine could potentially claim millions of lives, it is urgent that the Biden administration intensify pressure on the Ethiopian government beyond the sanctions it has already put in place.Background

The war began on Nov. 4, 2020, but there is a disagreement on who initiated it. The Ethiopian government claims that it launched an offensive in retaliation to an attack on the Ethiopian army by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). While, the TPLF claims that the war was initiated by the federal government and that they were acting in self-defense. The TPLF had for weeks prior to the war warned that a joint Eritrean and Ethiopian military offensive was being planned. The African Union’s Commission on Human and People’s Rights concluded through their own investigations that it was indeed the Ethiopian federal government that initiated the war. Diplomats on the ground have also confirmed a military build-up by federal troops along the border several days before the war began. Crucially, both the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, and officials from the Amhara Regional State have admitted that they had been preparing for war for two years and that their troops were mobilized on the border with Tigray and ready to attack before the war, lending credence to the Tigrayan claim.

The three actors that invaded Tigray – the Eritrean military, Ethiopian federal forces, and militia of the Amhara Regional State — had individual as well as overlapping objectives. The Eritrean government wanted revenge against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). It had been the dominant force in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government, which led efforts to diplomatically isolate Eritrea in the past. The Amhara militia’s main strategic objectives were territorial expansion and annexation of western and southern Tigray, which it claims is historically theirs, while Abiy’s main objective was the elimination of obstacles for his autocratic power consolidation. After he indefinitely postponed elections in June 2020, he imprisoned many leading opposition leaders while other dissidents were killed. Harassment of opposition parties has also made it difficult to operate and eventually led many to boycott the political process. The TPLF, which controlled a regional state of its own, was the only force with the institutional resources to resist Abiy’s centralization efforts. For example, when he postponed the elections, the TPLF proceeded to hold local elections in defiance.

The motives of these three actors converged on the desire to wage war on an entire community and collectively punish civilians in Tigray. In addition to numerous incriminating statements, the way the war was executed illustrates that civilians and civilian infrastructure were central targets of the war. One example is the use of rape as a weapon of war, which was, from the outset, widely used by the Amhara, Eritrean, and Ethiopian troops. The sexual violence often takes the form of gang rapes in groups as many as 20 to 30 men and often involves torture, leaving the assaulted women physically and mentally devastated. The latest official estimate of women needing treatment after sexual violence during the war was 22,500, but this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

Amhara militias also have ethnically cleansed around 1 million people from western Tigray. The troops have also systematically vandalized healtheducation, and economic infrastructure. Another devastating crime against civilians in Tigray is the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Eritrean and Ethiopian troops are systematically destroying farmers’ agricultural equipment and seeds; preventing them from farming; and obstructing the work of humanitarian workers in order to prevent food assistance from reaching the needy. Currently, 5.2 million or 91 percent of Tigrayans need emergency food, according to the United Nations, and they face a serious risk of famine. Given the level of intentional destruction, some analysts and politicians, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), have claimed the violations may constitute genocide.

Eritrean Involvement 

The involvement of Eritrea in the war has become one of the most controversial aspects of the war, and its withdrawal of troops is a key demand by the United States and the international community. For months, both Ethiopian and Eritrean authorities vehemently denied accusations of Eritrea’s involvement, much less the way they were conducting the war. On March 23, however, Abiy admitted that Eritrean forces have been in Tigray since the war began. After months of denial, Eritrea too recently confirmed that its troops are fighting in Tigray.

Eritrean forces are implicated in most of the atrocities committed in Tigray, including the massacre in the Dengelat church, another massacre and massive looting in Axum, widespread sexual violence, prohibiting Tigrayans from farming their land, and blocking relief efforts. It is imperative to note that the Abiy administration has never protested Eritrea’s involvement. In fact, multiple reports indicate that Ethiopian federal forces and Eritrean forces conduct joint military operations. In light of these facts, it seems likely that Ethiopia invited Eritrea to participate in the war, and may have helped it operate covertly. In any event, it is evident that Ethiopia created conducive conditions for Eritrean troops to commit atrocity crimes with absolute impunity. That said, the extent to which Ethiopia currently has leverage over the Eritrean army is questionable. Such utter abdication of duty makes the case for international responsibility to protect civilians in Tigray compelling.

The U.S. Response to the Tigray Crisis 

The Biden administration spent its first five months in office trying to convince Abiy to change course, a testament to how valuable the United States sees its partnership with Ethiopia. For two decades Ethiopia was the United States’ main security partner in the Horn of Africa. There were also numerous attempts by the United States and some European States to raise the Tigray crisis at the U.N. Security Council, but they failed to produce any meaningful outcome due to opposition from Russia and China. The international organizations that had the mandate and responsibility to act abdicated their responsibility. The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Musa Faki, embraced the war and sided with the Ethiopian government early on in the conflict, while U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has not been willing to take a strong public stand against the conflict. The European Union was the only actor that confronted Abiy by withholding some of its development assistance.

When the U.N. Security Council refused to seriously engage on the topic, the Biden administration focused on working directly with Ethiopia. Biden first sent Sen. Chris Coons (D-CT) as emissary and later appointed Jeffrey Feltman as special envoy to the Horn of Africa to persuade Abiy to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray and allow unhindered humanitarian access to civilians. This policy achieved little, however, and it gave Abiy more time to commit atrocities and allowed the conflict to turn deeper into a humanitarian and regional crisis.

The failure of this policy was mostly due to the belief that the Ethiopian government would be susceptible to diplomatic overtures. Historical evidence suggests, however, that governments that perpetuate systemic mass atrocities on this scale rarely allow themselves to be persuaded to halt their violent campaigns by non-coercive means. For example, the Cambodian genocide ended when the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by Vietnam, while the Bosnian genocide was halted through NATO’s military campaigns.

For six months, Abiy successfully took advantage of the widely held view amongst Western governments that Ethiopia –due to its role in regional counterinsurgency and peacekeeping — is too important of a strategic partner to be sanctioned or even confronted. He used this attitude amongst Western diplomats to buy time. From the beginning of the war, he constantly made promises he didn’t keep – first, it was the withdrawal of Eritrean troops, then unfettered access to humanitarian aid. Each lie bought him some time, and rarely did the deception or atrocities have any consequences.

After months of patient, but ineffective diplomacy, on May 24, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that visa bans would be applied against Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, members of the Amhara militia, and the TPLF for obstructing efforts to end the conflict in Tigray. Other sanctions included restrictions on development and security assistance to Ethiopia. The United States has also asked multilateral development banks to suspend funding to Ethiopia. The scale of the crimes and the failure of diplomatic overtures meant that the only remaining option was coercive diplomacy.

The main impact of the sanctions is, however, their symbolic effects. They convey the message that Ethiopia’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Tigray are not acceptable.

Abiy’s first reaction to the U.S. sanctions was to rally the country behind the flag. The Ethiopian government has also made thinly veiled threats that it intends to look to China and Russia for alternative partnerships. This is, however, only a bluff. Ethiopia is a highly aid-dependent country, and it is extremely unlikely that China or Russia would be willing to provide the same level of development assistance that Europe and the United States have provided. Abiy’s current tactic seems to be to buy enough time to set off a major famine, in the hopes that hunger will end the Tigrayan insurgency. But, as the history of insurgencies in Ethiopia indicate, the armed resistance is likely to continue despite the famine.

What More Should Be Done

To be effective, the U.S. government needs to expand sanctions and intensify pressure on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. An incremental increase in pressure is counter-productive. Eventually, Abiy will have to politically engage his opponents; the purpose of outside pressure should be to make this happen before the famine kills hundreds of thousands of civilians and before the State collapses. It is important to disable his war machinery as early as possible.

For this to happen, the Biden administration needs to mobilize and coordinate a common front together with European and African States. While the EU has taken a strong stance, individual European countries, like France, Italy, and Germany, have been reluctant to confront Abiy on his human rights record. There needs to be a concerted effort to use financial assistance as leverage. Assets of key individuals should also be frozen through the Global Magnitsky Act.

While the U.N. Security Council should impose an arms embargo on the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, action at the Council still seems unlikely given Russian and Chinese intransigence. As a second-best option, the U.S. government should impose an arms embargo on Eritrea and Ethiopia. As the United States is not a major arms trading partner for either Ethiopia or Eritrea, this would only be effective if done in conjunction with European States and by using secondary sanctions to deter arms exporters from trading with these countries. Over time, this would reduce Abiy’s access to weapons and ensure that his wars with Tigray, Oromia, and Sudan cannot continue indefinitely. It would also further isolate him diplomatically. So far, Abiy has rejected all calls for dialogue. Reduced access to weapons would eventually compel him to pursue a political solution. An arms embargo would also help disable Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s war machinery and end his destabilization of the Horn of Africa. The sanctions should be lifted only when a verification mechanism for the withdrawal of Eritrean, Amhara, and Ethiopian troops from Tigray has been put in place on the ground, and when a formal cessation of hostilities and a peace-process has begun.

More than five million people are categorized as needing emergency food assistance by the U.N., and with the current trajectory, most of these will soon be in famine conditions. If Abiy’s government is not stopped, the casualties of the Tigray war will, within a few months, exceed that of Rwanda’s genocide. If this is to be averted, the Biden administration needs to establish redlines and deadlines for compliance. If there is a continued refusal to comply with demands to end the conflict and allow humanitarian access to civilians in need, then the option of humanitarian military intervention merits serious consideration.

The U.N. Security Council is unlikely to support such measures, but the heavy humanitarian cost of inaction should be unacceptable. A NATO or other multilateral mission to push Eritrean troops out of Tigray and provide safe passage for humanitarian access may be the only option left to prevent the politically engineered famine from killing millions. The norm of Responsibility to Protect was formulated precisely for this type of situation. While there is little appetite for humanitarian intervention in the West, the alternative will be to allow the deliberate starvation of millions of people. We note that for a host of reasons, the United States has not  clearly embraced the legality of humanitarian intervention absent Security Council authorization (although a few of its close allies, like the UK, have done so). We also suspect that the Biden administration is unlikely to change the long-standing U.S. legal view. But if the African Union, NATO, or the United States with a coalition of partners, were to intervene in Ethiopia in such circumstances, while it might be viewed as unlawful, it would not be unprecedented. Given the severity of the humanitarian situation in Tigray, such action could furthermore be morally justified.  As the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty has argued, if “the Security Council fails to discharge its responsibility [to protect] in conscience-shocking situations crying out for action, then it is unrealistic to expect that concerned states will rule out other means and forms of action to meet the gravity and urgency of these situations.”

Beyond Tigray, if Abiy does not commit to a political process with his opponents, it is plausible that the Ethiopian State — with its 120 million inhabitants — will collapse. This would destabilize the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, through which a substantial share of the world’s trade passes every year. Pressure by the United States and its partners may therefore play an important role in reversing this trajectory before it’s too late.

Tigray: Two reports about the Togoga bombing

Thursday, 24 June 2021 12:45 Written by

JUNE 23, 2021  ETHIOPIANEWSTIGRAY

Source: Sky News

Ethiopia: Dozens reportedly killed and injured after airstrike on Tigray village

Image:This infant was among those injured in the blast
 Dozens of people have been killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region after an airstrike hit a busy market, according to witnesses.

Health workers said soldiers have blocked medical teams from travelling to the scene after the village of Togoga was struck.

The number of people killed has not been confirmed, but one doctor said “more than 80 civilian deaths” had been reported.

It comes amid some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November, as Ethiopian forces supported by those from neighbouring Eritrea pursue Tigray’s former leaders.


Injured patients being treated at Mekelle’s Ayder hospital said a plane dropped a bomb on Togoga’s marketplace.

She added that a baby died on the way to hospital after the ambulance carrying the infant was blocked for two hours.

One medical worker said six ambulances carrying around 20 health workers had attempted to reach the wounded but soldiers stopped them at a checkpoint before sending them back to Mekelle.

“They told us we couldn’t go to Togoga. We stayed more than one hour at the checkpoint trying to negotiate, we had a letter from the health bureau – we showed them. But they said it was an order.”

Several more ambulances were later sent away, but one group of medical workers managed to access the site on Tuesday evening via a different route.

One woman, who said her husband and two-year-old daughter were injured in the strike, said the bomb hit the market at around 1pm on Tuesday.

“We didn’t see the plane but we heard it,” she said. “When the explosion happened, everyone ran out – after a time we came back and were trying to pick up the injured.”

Residents said the violence had flared in recent days north of the regional capital Mekelle.

Image:A baby injured in the airstike is treated at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekelle

Medical workers have treated around 40 wounded people, but estimate the number of injured is likely higher as some people fled after the attack.

Five patients were said to need emergency operations but the health workers were unable to evacuate them.

A doctor in Mekele said: “We have been asking, but until now we didn’t get permission to go, so we don’t know how many people are dead.”

One Red Cross ambulance trying to reach injured people on Tuesday was shot at twice by Ethiopian soldiers, according to another doctor.

He said the soldiers held his team for 45 minutes before ordering them back to Mekele.

“We are not allowed to go,” he said. “They told us whoever goes, they are helping the troops of the TPLF.”

The TPLF stands for Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the political party which governed the region until it was ousted by a federal government offensive in November.

Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: PM says Eritrea will withdraw troops from region

 

Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict: PM says Eritrea will withdraw troops from region

The subsequent fighting has killed thousands, forcing more than two million people from their homes.

Witnesses have repeatedly accused Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers of looting and destroying health centres across the Tigray region and denying civilians access to care, while the United Nations has said all sides have been accused of abuses.

Commenting on the recent airstrike, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in Berlin: “The situation there is appalling.”

“Today a military airstrike has been producing a lot of casualties against the civilians,” he added.


Source: Al-Jazeera

Air raid kills dozens in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, say witnesses

Witnesses say Tuesday’s attack targeted a busy market in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray village of Togoga.

Dozens of people have been reportedly killed after an air attack targeted a busy market in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray village of Togoga on Tuesday, a day after residents said fighting had flared north of the regional capital Mekelle.

The bomb hit the market at approximately 1pm (10:00 GMT), according to a woman who told Reuters news agency that her husband and two-year-old daughter were injured in the attack.

“We didn’t see the plane but we heard it,” she said. “When the explosion happened, everyone ran out. Later, we came back and were trying to pick up the injured.”

Two doctors and a nurse in Mekelle told the Associated Press (AP) they were unable to confirm how many people were killed, but one doctor said health workers at the scene reported “more than 80 civilian deaths”.

The health workers spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Increased fighting

The reported air attack comes amid some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November as Ethiopian forces supported by those from neighbouring Eritrea pursue Tigray’s former leaders.

Reuters reported that Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane did not confirm or deny the incident. He said air attacks were a common military tactic and the force does not target civilians.

Three other health workers told Reuters that the Ethiopian military was blocking ambulances from reaching the scene.

Wounded patients being treated at Mekele’s Ayder Hospital told health workers that a plane dropped a bomb on Togoga’s marketplace.

A nurse at the hospital said the wounded included a two-year-old child with “abdominal trauma” and a six-year-old. She added that an ambulance carrying a wounded baby to Mekelle was blocked for two hours and the baby died on the way.

Hailu Kebede, foreign affairs head for the Salsay Woyane Tigray opposition party and who comes from Togoga, told AP that one fleeing witness had counted more than 30 bodies and other witnesses were reporting more than 50 people killed.

“It was horrific,” said an official for an international aid group who told the AP he had spoken with a colleague and others at the scene.

“We don’t know if the jets were coming from Ethiopia or Eritrea. They are still looking for bodies by hand. More than 50 people were killed, maybe more.”

Witnesses said several more ambulances were turned back later in the day and on Wednesday morning, but one group of medical workers reached the site on Tuesday evening via a different route.

“We have been asking, but until now we didn’t get permission to go, so we don’t know how many people are dead,” said one of the doctors in Mekelle.

Another doctor said the Red Cross ambulance he was travelling in on Tuesday, trying to reach the scene, was shot at twice by Ethiopian soldiers who held his team for 45 minutes before ordering them back to Mekelle.

“We are not allowed to go,” he said. “They told us whoever goes, they are helping the troops of the TPLF.”

The TPLF refers to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed Tigray until it was overthrown by a federal government offensive in November. The subsequent fighting has killed thousands and forced more than two million people from their homes.

While the United Nations has said all sides have been accused of abuses, Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers have been repeatedly accused by witnesses of looting and destroying health centres across Tigray and denying civilians access to care.

This month, humanitarian agencies warned that 350,00 people in Tigray are facing famine. Aid workers have said they have been repeatedly denied access to several parts of the region by soldiers.

The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says it has nearly defeated the rebels. But forces loyal to the TPLF recently announced an offensive in parts of Tigray and have claimed a string of victories.