On Saturday, the French president summoned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Abdallah Hamdok, the head of the Sudanese government. Two interviews to underline, according to the Élysée, France’s concerns about the rise of fighting in northern Ethiopia and the development of the humanitarian situation in Tigray.
Emmanuel Macron says he is worried about the rise of fighting, especially since Tigraya’s counter-offensive and massive mobilization of militiamen in neighboring Amhara, raising fears of a civil war.
“The French president indicated that the deteriorating humanitarian situation and the need to provide assistance to the people of Tigray require strong action,” Elysee said in a press release released in the early afternoon.
Among these measures, “lifting all restrictions on the provision of assistance”. Roads leading to Tigray have been blocked by the Ethiopian government since July 18 and the attack on a World Food Program convoy. Hundreds of WFP trucks could not get food there when famine hit one in six people in the province a month ago. According to the UN, 90% of the region’s inhabitants live thanks to external assistance.
The opening of a corridor rejected by the Ethiopian government In this context, Paris says that it supports the efforts of Martin Griffiths, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which is currently in Ethiopia. After meeting on Friday, Déméké Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister, will visit the UN representative in Tigray and the neighboring region of Amhara. For its part, the United States will send Samantha Power, the head of USAID, the American international aid agency expected in Addis Ababa in the next few hours.
At the heart of these visits, the same request: the opening of a humanitarian corridor to reach Tigray and its six million inhabitants. This request for transparency was rejected by the Ethiopian Deputy Foreign Minister, according to which it is similar to Western temptations to actually supply weapons to the Tigrayan rebels. An accusation made several times by the Ethiopian government without ever providing evidence, notes our correspondent in Addis Ababa, Noé Rochet-Bodin.
International pressure is therefore mounting on the Ethiopian authorities. In his interview with Abiy Ahmed, Emmanuel Macron not only asked for the arrival of humanitarian aid to Tigray, “he also stated, according to the Elysee, that the development of the situation would require negotiations on” an end to hostilities and the opening of a political dialogue between the parties to the conflict. , with respect for Ethiopia’s integrity and unity. “
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