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Ethiopia’s government is rejecting requests for independent investigations into the deadly conflict in its Tigray region, saying it “doesn’t need a babysitter.”
The statement by senior government official Redwan Hussein came amid international calls for greater transparency in the month-long fighting between Ethiopian forces and those of the fugitive Tigray regional government believed to have killed thousands, including civilians.
At least one large-scale massacre has been documented and others are feared.
Hussein told reporters late Tuesday that Ethiopia will invite others to seek help only if it feels it “did not investigate.”
To assume that the government cannot carry out such investigations “is to disparage the government,” he said.
Ethiopia’s government has rejected what it calls external “interference” of dialogue efforts to deliver aid, based on its history as the rare never-colonized African country, a source of deep national pride.
But frustration grows as the North Tigray region remains largely cut off from the outside world, with food and medicine desperately needed by the population of six million; nearly a million of them are now believed to be displaced.
The lack of transparency, as most communications and transport links remain down, has complicated efforts to verify the claims of the belligerent side.
It also undermines efforts to understand the scope of the atrocities that have been committed since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on November 4 that clashes had started with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated the government and the Ethiopian army for nearly three decades before his arrival. to power and marked it.
The federal and regional governments are considered illegal, as the TPLF opposes the postponement of national elections until next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sees Abiy’s mandate expired.
UN personnel shot at
The Abiy government has made it clear that it wants to manage the delivery of aid. On Tuesday, he said his forces fired on and detained members of United Nations personnel who allegedly passed through two checkpoints while trying to reach areas where they were “not supposed to go.”
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said four people were in a convoy trying to assess the roads, which “must be done before the larger UN aid convoys enter.”
The employees have since been released, according to Redwan.
An alarmed UN said it is “engaging at the highest level with the federal government to voice our concerns” more than a week after the government signed an agreement to allow humanitarian access. The agreement, crucially, allows aid only in areas under federal government control.
While the Ethiopian government says the fighting has stopped, the leaders of the rebel TPLF have claimed the conflict continues.
Sporadic shooting continues in Tigray and humanitarian assistance must be escorted by defense forces, Redwan said.
Amid mounting accusations of massacres and attacks on refugee camps inside Tigray, the UN human rights office has not responded to a question about whether it has started investigating possible war crimes.
Mekelle ‘without medical attention’
Meanwhile, the need for help is seen as critical.
The capital of Tigrayan, Mekelle, a city of half a million people, is “basically today without medical care,” the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, told reporters on Tuesday.
In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Mardini said the city’s Ayder referral hospital has run out of supplies, including fuel for power generators.
Ayder, the main hospital in #Meekelle #Tigray he is paralyzed. No supplies, no fuel, no running water. Doctors and nurses have suspended intensive care services and are struggling to perform routine care, such as delivering babies or providing dialysis treatment.
Working to restock hospitals. https://t.co/cem4uuWQe6
– Robert Mardini (@RMardiniICRC) December 9, 2020
“Doctors and nurses have suspended intensive care services and are struggling to perform routine care, such as delivering babies or providing dialysis treatment,” he said.
A joint ICRC and Ethiopian Red Cross convoy with supplies for hundreds of wounded is ready to go to Mekelle, pending approval, he said. It would be the first international convoy to reach the city since the fighting began.
While the risk of insecurity remains in the capital of Tigrayan, there is no active fighting, Mardini said.
“The people of Tigray have been disconnected from services for almost a month. They have had no telephone, no internet, no electricity or fuel. Cash is running out. This, of course, increases the tension, ”he said.
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