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Authorities in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region accuse security forces in a neighboring region of forcing citizens to leave their homes.
A group from the Doctors Without Borders organization in Tigray. Stock Photography.
Gebremeskel Kassa, chief of staff for the Tigray Regional Interim Government, said that between 3,500 and 5,000 residents who had been dragged away by some 60 trucks and buses had arrived in the city of Shire.
The indictment is aimed at forces in the neighboring Amhara region, which largely sided with Addis Ababa when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against Tigray in November.
The battle affected the government of the Tigre Liberation Front (TPLF) in the region. According to the Addis Ababa government, the TPLF had attacked military bases.
The dispute over land ownership is compounded by Amhara’s claims that the TPLF has illegally seized land since the group took power in Tigray in the 1990s. The Amhara regional government did not respond to the request. question from the AFP news agency about a reaction to the information.
In a February statement from the US State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that Amhara’s troops withdraw from Tigray immediately. The US move upset the Addis Ababa government, calling it “regrettable.”
Doctors Without Borders warns that many, up to 10,000 people, have arrived in Shire in the past one or two weeks, and that the situation is “worrying, but has not reached alarming levels,” according to spokeswoman Kate White.
