Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: Eritrea refugees in Ethiopia run out of food, UN says

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Thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have run out of food, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has said.

It appealed for urgent access to the region to provide emergency assistance.

Communications and aid access have been blocked since the conflict between the federal army and fighters loyal to Tigray leadership began a month ago.

Nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees are in Tigray. They fled political persecution and compulsory military service.

A lot of focus has been on the tens of thousands who have fled to Sudan from Tigray during the fighting, but there is also concern about these Eritreans.

The UNHCR also said it was “alarmed” at unconfirmed reports of attacks and abductions and at the refugee camps.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on Sunday that the military offensive in Tigray had ended after federal forces took control of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.

But Debretsion Gebremichael, who leads the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said fighting still continues and his forces have made some gains.

‘Hunger a real danger’

Concerns about the state of the Eritrean refugees are growing by the hour, the UNHCR said in a briefing in Geneva.

“The camps will have now run out of food supplies – making hunger and malnutrition a real danger, a warning we have been issuing since the conflict began nearly a month ago.

“Our extreme worry is that we hear about attacks, the fighting near the camps, we hear about abductions and forced removals, so this is very important for us to have that access to go and see what has happened over there,” its spokesman Babar Baloch told journalists.

The UNHCR also called for the protection of all civilians.

Mr Abiy told parliament on Monday that not a single civilian had been killed since the government launched its offensive in early November.

The government has also said it would open up a humanitarian corridor.

‘Overwhelming’ reports of killings of Eritreans in Tigray: UN

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The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said it has received an “overwhelming” number of reports about Eritrean refugees in Tigray being killed, abducted or forcibly returned to Eritrea since fighting in Ethiopia’s northernmost region began more than a month ago.

“If confirmed, these actions would constitute a major violation of international law,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in a statement on Friday, adding his agency has met some refugees in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

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It is vital that Eritrean refugees be able to move to safe locations, and receive protection and assistance wherever possible, including outside of Tigray, given the traumatic events they report to have witnessed or survived,” he added.

UNHCR and other aid agencies have not had access to the four main camps hosting for Eritrean refugees – Shimelba, Hitsats, Mai-Ayni and Adi Harush – inside Tigray, since fighting erupted in early November between the government and the region’s former ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Ethiopia’s army has captured the regional capital Mekelle and declared victory, but TPLF leaders said they are fighting back on various fronts around the highland city. Most communications in Tigray are down and access to the area is severely restricted, making it hard to verify either side’s statements.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said in text messages to Reuters News Agency this month that Eritrean soldiers had raided two camps in Tigray and abducted some residents, but provided no evidence. Eritrea has denied this.

The refugees living in camps in Ethiopia near the border of their homeland are in an especially precarious position. Eritreans often leave to escape mandatory, indefinite military service and repression or search for better opportunities out of what has long been one of the world’s most isolated countries.

Earlier this week, Ethiopia’s government admitted federal troops fired at and briefly detained UN workers in Tigray region, blaming them for trying to reach areas where “they were not supposed to go”.

In his statement on Friday, Grandi called on the Ethiopian government to implement steps to ensure safe access for humanitarian workers in Tigray.

“Such access is urgently needed so we can provide desperately needed assistance to refugees and other vulnerable populations.”

Refugees returned back

Grandi’s statement came hours after Ethiopia’s government said it was returning Eritrean refugees to the Tigray camps, asserting that its recently completed military offensive against the forces loyal to TPLF “was not a direct threat” to the 96,000 Eritrean refugees registered in Ethiopia – even as aid groups said four staffers had been killed in the fighting, at least one in a refugee camp.

“A large number of misinformed refugees are moving out in an irregular manner,” the government said in a statement.

Source https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/11/disturbing-un-says-safety-of-eritrean-refugees-greatly-at-risk