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The European Union has postponed 90 million euros ($ 109 million) in budget support to Ethiopia due to lack of access to the country’s Tigray region to deliver humanitarian aid amid the conflict.
The delay in funding, which was supposed to be paid by the end of the year, was confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday by a senior EU diplomat in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
“A budget support disbursement of € 90 million that was supposed to take place at the end of this year has been postponed,” Ambassador Johan Borgstam, the EU’s head of delegation to Ethiopia, said in a telephone interview. He added that other EU aid programs will continue.
“The reason for the decision to postpone budget support disbursements is that the EU first wants to see the granting of full humanitarian access to Tigray for first responders so that people in need can be reached and an end to the selection of ethnic targets “. he said.
The EU is also seeking the government’s assurance that civilians who want to seek refuge in neighboring countries can do so and that mechanisms are in place to investigate allegations of human rights violations, he said.
“In addition, it is important that the media have access and the reestablishment of all communications in Tigray, a process that we know has already been initiated by the government. This will be crucial to understanding the needs on the ground, ”he said.
The EU is one of Ethiopia’s largest donors, allocating € 1.2 billion ($ 1.4 billion) for development cooperation with Ethiopia from 2014 to 2020, of which € 500 million ($ 608 million) have been in direct support of the budget.
Ethiopian officials have yet to respond to the announcement of the EU postponement.
The Ethiopian federal government began to take military action against the leadership of the Tigray region after it said its forces based in the region suffered “inhuman attacks” in early November.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory two weeks ago, but local reports suggest there are still some clashes in certain locations. Thousands of people are feared to have died in the conflict that pitted the Ethiopian federal government against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a party that dominated Ethiopian politics for 27 years until Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy arrived. to power in April 2018.
The Tigray conflict has alarmed the international humanitarian community, as communications with much of the region have been cut off. The UN refugee agency said more than 50,000 Ethiopians, mainly from Tigray, have fled across the border into Sudan.
On Sunday, Abiy of Ethiopia traveled to Tigray’s regional capital, Mekele, which is now controlled by federal forces. He vowed to bring to justice the “criminals” who were the leaders of the Tigray regional government and urged that reconstruction begin immediately.
Telecommunications and electricity in Tigray have started to work in some places, but large areas of the region remain inaccessible to both humanitarian workers and journalists.
