Five days after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that the federal army had taken over the city of Mekele, a stronghold of the Tigray People’s Liberation Party, fighting is continuing in some areas of the region, the UN Office regrets. united. In recent days, a humanitarian corridor should have been created, but NGOs have still not been able to access the country. Meanwhile, refugees continue to cross the border en masse, when they are not prevented from doing so.
With our correspondents in Addis Ababa, Noé Rochet-Bodinand in Khartoum, Eliott Brachet
It has been a week since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the victory for his troops engaged in the dissident Tigray region. But the fighting continues, as alleged by the Tiger Party TPLF and diplomatic sources. Telecommunications have continued to decline in the region for a month, and more than three million people need humanitarian aid.
Humanitarian aid is coming slowly, especially as the Ethiopian government only restricts aid workers’ access to areas under its control. For the European Union, this is not acceptable.
The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, is visiting Sudan and Addis Ababa, demanding more efforts from the Ethiopian authorities, in particular to provide completely free and independent humanitarian access to Tigray. “Humanitarian organizations decide where, when and who they can help. It should not be decided by the government. The limits introduced are unacceptable, he says.
Telecommunications are still declining
The European Union is still trying to reason with the various parties to the conflict. It is still too early to talk about financial strains, he says. “We are not there yet and I can not predict whether we will get to this point. Today we are at a stage where we respectfully ask to follow international standards. ”
Main obstacle to crisis management, according to Janez Lenarcic, blackout for telecommunications. The province has still been cut off from the world for over a month now. “If you want to fight misinformation effectively, then open Tigray!” Restore telecommunications, give aid workers access, and approve investigations to shed light on the gifted atrocities. It’s not complicated. “
Ethiopian soldiers carrying fleeing civilians
To date, no humanitarian convoy has been able to intervene in Tigray. According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict has claimed thousands of lives and tens of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees. So on Wednesday, the UN refugee agency counted more than 47,000 refugees in Sudanese territory. Refugees continue to cross the Sudanese border, but fewer and fewer as the Ethiopian army reportedly blocks their passage.
At 6 o’clock on Friday, a group of refugees tried to take the boat across the river Tekezé, which separates Ethiopia from Sudan. But soldiers showed up to prevent them. They got off all the passengers and sent them back to Ethiopia. The scene is described to us by humanitarians on the spot. This is not the first time this week that Ethiopian soldiers have tried to block crossings, Sudanese military sources confirm.
Summary executions
These accounts confirm the testimonies of many Tigrayan refugees in camps in Sudan. They accuse the Ethiopian federal army of holding back thousands of civilians trying to escape the fighting in Tigray. Some talk about checkpoints blocking the roads, others about forced recruitment into the army, which goes as far as summary executions for those who do not follow military orders or Amhara militiamen who control the area.
For its part, the federal army is making sure that the situation has returned to normal on the Ethiopian side and that the refugees can return safely. But they still pass several hundred every day. Their numbers have declined, but NGOs are worried as these refugees are using new crossings and taking more and more risks to find refuge in Sudan.
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