NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The lives of civilians in the Tigray region of Ethiopia have become “extremely alarming” as hunger grows and the struggle remains an obstacle to reaching millions with help , according to the United Nations in a new report.
The conflict that has shaken one of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries – a key ally of US security in the Horn of Africa – has killed thousands and reached its fourth month. But little is known about the plight of most of Tigray’s 6 million people, as journalists are barred from entering, communications are erratic and many aid workers are struggling to get permission to enter.
One challenge is that Ethiopia can no longer control up to 40% of the Tigray region, according to the UN Security Council in a closed session this week. Ethiopia and Allied fighters have been pursuing the now fugitive Tigray regional government, which dominated the Ethiopian government for nearly three decades.
Now Eritrean soldiers they are deeply involved alongside Ethiopia, although Addis Ababa denies its presence. On Friday, Eritrea rejected “false and alleged allegations” after the U.S. embassy issued an online statement about the need for Eritrean forces to march.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was the latest to put direct pressure on Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, urging the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner in a phone call to allow the access to “immediate, full and unhindered” help in Tigray before more people die.
Abyy’s brief statement about the call did not mention Tigray. Nor are his statements this week calling on French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as European countries also express concern over one of the world’s newest crisis areas. Residents of Sudan and Somalia could be absorbed, experts have warned.
The new UN humanitarian report published Thursday afternoon includes a map showing most of the Tigray region marked as “inaccessible” to humanitarian workers. He says the security situation remains “unstable and unpredictable” more than two months after Abiy’s government declared victory.
The response to aid remains “drastically inadequate,” with little access to the large rural population off the main roads, according to the report, even as the Ethiopian government has said more than a million people in Tigray have been attended to with assistance. Some assistance workers have reported that they had to negotiate access with several armed actors, including the Eritreans.
Civilians have suffered. “Reports from humanitarian workers on the ground indicate an increase in acute malnutrition across the region,” the new report says. “Only 1 percent of the nearly 920 nutritional treatment facilities in Tigray can be reached.”
Hunger has become a major concern. “Many households are expected to have already run out of food stocks or run out of food stocks in the next two months,” according to a new report released Thursday by the network of early warning systems on hunger, which is funded and managed by US
The report said more parts of central and eastern Tigray are likely to enter emergency phase 4, one step below hunger, in the coming weeks.
Health care in the region is “alarmingly limited,” only three of Tigray’s 11 hospitals operate, and nearly 80 percent of health centers are not functional or accessible, according to the UN report. Assistance workers have said many health centers have been looted, affected by artillery fire or destroyed.
Large parts of two camps that housed thousands of refugees from nearby Eritrea have been systematically destroyed, according to satellite imagery analysis by the UK-based nonprofit DX Open Network. About 5,000 of the refugees who have fled to the Shire community are now “living in appalling conditions, many sleeping in an open camp on the outskirts of the city, with no water or food,” the UN report says.
UN refugee visiting chief Filippo Grandi this week urged Ethiopia to allow access to independent investigators to investigate alleged widespread human rights abuses, calling the overall situation in Tigray “extremely serious”.