NINE MILLION PEOPLE RISK DISPLACEMENT FROM THE ESCALATING CONFLICT IN ETHIOPIA: UN WARN

Sun 08 November 2020:

Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed is pressing ahead with a military campaign he announced on Wednesday against the northern region, despite international pleas to pursue dialogue with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Meanwhile Nine million people risk displacement from the escalating conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the United Nations said, warning that the federal government’s declaration of a state of emergency was blocking food and other aid.

About 600,000 people in Tigray depend on food aid to survive, while another 1 million receive other forms of support, all of which are disrupted, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released Saturday.

Clashes between federal troops and Tigrayan forces had broken out in eight locations in the region, according to the report.

Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed said on Twitter on Saturday that his military campaign “aims to end the impunity that has prevailed for far too long”, he said, a reference to the dominance of Tigrayans in the country’s politics before he took office.

Experts and diplomats are sounding alarms of a potential civil war that could destabilize the country of 110 million people and the strategic Horn of Africa region.

The federal military’s biggest command, and the majority of its heavy weapons, are stationed in Tigray. One of the biggest risks is that the army will split along ethnic lines, with Tigrayans defecting to their region’s own force. There are signs that is already happening, analysts say.

Tigrayan forces number up to 250,000 men and have their own significant stocks of military hardware, experts say.

Abiy spoke on Saturday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who “offered his good offices”. The UN chief also spoke on Saturday to the African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and to Sudanese Primes Minster Abdalla Hamdok in his capacity as chair of the regional Africa group IGAD, according to the spokesman.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent