The conflict between the Ethiopian national military forces and the Tigray local security forces creates difficulties for the development aid agencies in reaching people in need with help.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced that humanitarian workers are experiencing problems in contacting organizations that receive their help to distribute assistance amongst the Tigray community, as the telephone lines have been cut. There are also very few media reports describing what is happening in the region so development agencies do not know where help is needed and how the residents of Tigray are moving within the region.
One of the few sources of information are the refugees. However, the information flow cannot be corroborated.
As the roads in Tigray are closed, there is no way to deliver food, medicines, health assistance, and other supplies to people in need. According to various reports, local banks are closed and the authorities forbid the movement of all vehicles on the roads. This makes the situation for those most vulnerable even more difficult. As the region is affected by a wave of violence there is a high risk that civilians will become victims of the hostilities with women, the elderly, children, and the disabled being in particular danger.
According to OCHA, 2 million people in the region are in need of some type of humanitarian assistance, while 600,000 people already rely on the humanitarian aid provided by the organization. The region is already inhabited by 100,000 internally displaced people and 96,000 Eritrean refugees. Since 9th November, at least 3,400 Ethiopian asylum seekers have crossed the Sudanese border with the authorities there working on their relocation to reception centers at the Shagrab camp in Kassala State.
UN representatives, together with their partner organizations, remain willing to provide humanitarian assistance regardless of the hostilities. The OCHA has also stressed that another threat may significantly worsen the living conditions of those inhabiting Tigray and that is the desert locusts which are destroying crops that will further increase food insecurity.
The conflict around Tigray escalated on 4th November when Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, launched a military strike there in reaction to the attack on an Ethiopian military camp by the local authorities, represented by Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the ruling party in this region. The movement was established in 1975 and, since then, its members have been fighting to make Tigray autonomous and independent from Ethiopia, a situation that the government in Addis Ababa has been unwilling to accept. The Ethiopian government is trying to crush the resistance with the help of allied militia and it stresses that the region will be able to enjoy a significant level of autonomy which will be enshrined in the constitution. Abiy is accusing Tigray’s local authorities whilst they may seek independence, they are aiming to completely take over power.
On the other hand, Tigrayan leaders claim that they have been unfairly accused of corruption and of causing Ethiopia’s problems after being the majority party of the governing coalition for many years before Abiy became Prime Minister in 2018.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to assess how many people died and were injured as a result of the air strikes as reporters have been banned from the combat zone and there are no communications with the Tigray region whose inhabitants have reported air raids and artillery fire.
