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By Addis Getachew
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
The UN on Saturday apologized to Ethiopia for a widely reported incident in which its staff breached security checks in the Tigray region.
Last Sunday, the convoy of UN personnel was shot and detained in the town of Shire in the Tigray region. They were later released by the Ethiopian security forces.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Head of the Emergency Task Force for Tigray, Redwan Hussein, said UN personnel had “indulged in some kind of adventure.”
According to him, they were shot when they passed through two checkpoints and were about to break the third.
UN Resident Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs Catherine Sozy has apologized for the behavior of UN staff, the Ethiopian state news agency reported citing a statement from the Ethiopian Ministry of Peace.
Last month, the UN and the Ethiopian government signed a humanitarian access coordination mechanism agreement.
On November 4, Ethiopia launched a law enforcement operation in the country’s northernmost region of Tigray, after the now-outlawed Tigray People’s Liberation Front stormed the Ethiopian Defense Forces Northern Command.
An intense military confrontation ensued between the Ethiopian army and fighters loyal to the TPLF that forced 50,000 people to take refuge in neighboring Sudan.
On November 28, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared that the military operation had ended after the fall of the regional capital, Mekele, to the federal army.
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