Médecins Sans Frontières announces the death of three of its employees in
Three Médecins Sans Frontières staff members were killed in an attack in Abiy Addi in the war-torn Tigray region of Ethiopia. MSF had lost contact with its team on Thursday afternoon when the three employees left on foot, among the victims a Spaniard and two Ethiopians.
The Spanish branch of NGO Doctors Without Borders announced in a statement on Friday that three employees, one Spanish and two Ethiopians, were killed in an attack in the conflict-torn region of Tigray. “We lost touch with them and the car they were traveling in yesterday afternoon and this morning the vehicle was found empty and their bodies lifeless a few meters away,” reports the NGO condemning “a brutal murder”.
The Spaniard, Maria Hernandez, 35, was an emergency coordinator at Médecins Sans Frontières. She had worked in the Central African Republic, Yemen or even in Nigeria and worked for NGOs since 2015. Maria Hernandez was accompanied and assisted in her work by Yohannes Halefom Reda, a 31-year-old Ethiopian who had only worked for MSF for a few months. Ethiopian Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, also 31 years old.
The NGO continues its statement by expressing its grief, its indignation and the shock that such a murder represents. They claim that these three humanitarians “were in Tigray to help the people” and considered it “inconceivable that it would cost them their lives”.
This tragedy comes when we observe a resurgence of violence and intense fighting in this province at war since November. Prior to the triple murder, nine humanitarian workers had already lost their lives in Tigray.
On Twitter, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry expressed its sympathy with Médecins Sans Frontières. He claims that the TPLF is actively working in this area and that the government had urged aid workers to be accompanied by a military escort to avoid “such tragic killings of this irresponsible group”.
Today we are in mourning after receiving confirmation that three of our colleagues we worked for in #Tigray killed. Maria Hernandez, emergency coordinator, Yohannes Halefom Reda, assistant coordinator & Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, driver. https://t.co/WksLftTpus pic.twitter.com/3WbxlS7HP3
MSF East Africa (@MSF_EastAfrica) 25 June 2021
.
