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10:59 a. M.
Thursday 12 November 2020
Agencies:
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday that the national army had found the bodies of its members who had been handcuffed and shot in Tigray, a northern region that had rebelled against the central government.
He did not say how many bodies were found and there were no comments from the TPLF.
On the other hand, the United Nations warned today, Thursday, that aid agencies operating in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia cannot resupply their stocks of food, health and other emergency supplies.
In its latest report on the crisis in northern Ethiopia, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that telephone lines with the region remain cut, hurting relief operations.
The report stated that “transportation to and from Tigray is not allowed, and as a result there are reports of shortages of basic goods affecting mostly the most vulnerable groups.”
The report added that aid organizations are also concerned about protecting children, women, the elderly and the disabled from military clashes.
On Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expressed concern over a refugee emergency if more civilians were forced to flee due to the fighting.
The Sudanese government said Wednesday that Sudan had received more than 10,000 Ethiopian refugees since the outbreak of fighting in the neighboring Ethiopian region of Tigray.
Anne Incontre, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ethiopia, said the international organization is negotiating with the parties to the armed conflict in Tigray to open humanitarian corridors.
So far, 44-year-old Abiy Ahmed, Africa’s youngest leader, has resisted calls from the United Nations, the African Union and other parties for a ceasefire and negotiations.
There is widespread fear that the fighting in Tigray will spread to other parts of the second most populous country in Africa and the rest of the Horn of Africa.
The Ethiopian state of Amhara, which borders Tigray and which supports Abiy, has canceled planned protests against the ruling party in Tigray.
“This is not an appropriate time to protest, given current security concerns,” the state liaison office said in a statement.
