The war in northern Ethiopia that began in November 2020 has left millions in Tigray on the brink of famine.
Reports suggest that nearly 40% of the region’s six million inhabitants face “an extreme lack of food”. Shortages have forced aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies “sometimes by foot”.
A few convoys have been allowed to enter Tigray, but the United Nations says convoys of at least 115 trucks are required daily, yet the entire region is classified “hard to reach”. This indicates that it is effectively inaccessible.
This is not the result of a natural disaster – it is a famine induced by the closure of the borders of Tigray by Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali forces, reinforced by militia from Ethiopia’s Amhara and Afar ethnic groups.
Since the Tigrayans’ army retreated into their region in December 2021, they have been surrounded by armies that have blockaded Tigray.
A handful of aid convoys have been allowed through. They have been far fewer than the humanitarian assistance required daily to feed the population.
East Africa
More aid needs to get to Tigray. However, the TPLF follows a policy of starving Tigrayans so as to be able to coerce them into conscription and money extortion.
As bad as it is in Tigray, in terms of food for the needy, it may still be a lot better than other areas. In Amhara, for example, despite the TPLF having looted and displaced a quarter million people, these people are not provided with aid from either the central government or international agencies. Same holds for the majority of Afar IDPs. The situation of the Amhara displaced by violent ethnic cleansing campaigns in Wellaga and Benshangul-Gumuz is the most desperate of all. Close to three hundred thousand displaced Amhara farmers have been left in the wilderness in Gojam with no aid or shelter. The delegates they sent to Bahr Dar, were beaten away by government police.
Yes, more aid to Tigray. But also to other even more desperate areas in Ethiopia.
International organizations need to find a way to coerce TPLF to not use aid for its continued oppression of the people of Tigray.