The humanitarian crisis in Ethiopian Tigray at “tipping point”

The United Nations – In his toughest statement yet on the seven-month crisis in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told members of the United Nations on Tuesday. Security Council “that there is now a famine in Tigray”. He blamed the forces of the neighboring nation of Eritrea squarely.

“Eritrean soldiers are using starvation as a weapon of war,” he said.

Lowcock painted a brutal picture. “Rape is systematically used to terrorize and brutalize women and girls. Aid workers have been killed, interrogated, beaten, prevented from providing aid to the starving and suffering people and have been ordered not to return, ”he told diplomats during a briefing in behind closed doors at a press conference. informal dialogue of the UN Security Council requested by the Irish Mission.

Irish Ambassador to the UN Geraldine Byrne Nason called the situation “an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe”.

“Now we are at a tipping point,” she said.

“Ignorance is dangerous. Denial is unforgivable.”

“Despite everything we have told you about the widespread and systematic scale of rape, we continue to receive horrific reports of widespread sexual violence,” said Lowcock, clearly frustrated by the lack of action of the Council of 15 Nations.

Lowcock described three areas where progress is “urgent”: humanitarian access, funding and an accelerated pace of aid.

“Ignorance is dangerous. Denial is unforgivable,” he warned, saying there is a “duty” to “do something.”

Fighting in Ethiopia erupted in November 2020 between government troops and the Tigrayans. Eritrea has sent forces across the border to help Ethiopian troops.

The Biden administration has spoken. Last month, citing persistent atrocities, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the “governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to take all necessary measures to ensure that their forces in Tigray cease and renounce this reprehensible behavior”.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield berated the council last week, asking: “Don’t African lives matter?“and contesting the absence of a single public meeting on the crisis.

US AID Administrator Samantha Power called on the three African members of the Security Council put the issue on the agenda.

Council members intervene

After Tuesday’s UN meeting, these three nations – Niger, Tunisia and Kenya – along with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, issued a statement saying they “share concern for humanitarian needs facing 17.1 million Ethiopians, including the inhabitants of Tigray “. Region. “All four countries expressed concern over” reports of sexual violence against women and girls. ”

They called on Ethiopia to “thoroughly investigate these atrocities”.

Not mentioning famine in the statement, the nations warned: “Any action by the Security Council must recognize and respond to the reality that Ethiopia is finalizing preparations for an election in barely a week.”

Ethiopian Ambassador to the UN Taye Atske Selassie Amde, who was present at the meeting, said Eritrean forces “will certainly leave soon”, a pledge that Eritrea also made in April – and which does not did not happen.

Later that evening, Irishman Byrne Nason told CBS News: “Ireland has been on the Security Council for six months, and in those six months we have never looked away from this disaster in development in Tigray. ”

She said: “We need unhindered humanitarian access to the hundreds of thousands of people already in immediate danger of famine, we need to make sure aid workers and supplies are safe, and we need to end all of them. violence.

“Ultimately, a political solution is needed, and Ireland certainly asked for it today, but as we work on it our number one priority is to ensure that no more lives are lost.” , added Byrne Nason.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva, who attended the meeting, told CBS News in a statement: “We take the humanitarian challenges facing Ethiopia very seriously.” She said “humanitarian agencies should step up aid in full respect and in close coordination with sovereign authorities.”

“We oppose any politicization of humanitarian situations, including in Tigray,” said the Russian envoy.

UK Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward addressed reporters after the closed dialogue, expressing disappointment that Council member countries could not agree on a meeting in public, claiming that “without a ceasefire it could turn into a famine.”