Compelling reasons for swift, impartial, and unhampered aid delivery.
As the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) affirmed on 4 February, the humanitarian situation in Tigray is alarmingly deteriorating by the day due to continuous fighting, gross human rights abuses, state bureaucracy, and lack of access to basic necessities as such food, water, shelter, and medicine.
It is now abundantly clear that unless the international community delivers immediate, unhindered, and impartial humanitarian assistance to millions of Tigrayans, the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians appears to be inevitable due to human-made famine.
The world is fully aware that a substantial number of people in Tigray have been cut off from food, water, electricity, medicine, banks, and communication services for over 100 days as a result of the war.
UN agencies have reiterated estimates that 4.5 million Tigrayans require emergency and life-saving urgent assistance and over 2.5 million children are malnourished. People have already begun to die, including entire families, in cities and towns such as Adwa and Axum. Furthermore, over 2 million and 60,000 people have been displaced internally and externally, respectively.
The Ethiopian federal government has been claiming that it is reaching out to millions to deliver relief in the region, as the Peace Ministry announced on 7 February. Furthermore, they claim that things are not out of control, the stores in the region have food stocks, and that other necessities and more aid is coming via Djibouti’s port.
Deliberate starvation
Some have accused the Ethiopian government of using starvation as a weapon. This is backed by the fact that the Eritrean and Amhara forces have been looting and vandalizing foodstuff, medicine, livelihoods, and businesses in urban and rural areas, in addition to the shocking atrocities they have been perpetrating against civilians.
The Ethiopian government, however, has been denying such accusations. Its officials and supporters have claimed that the issue of the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is vastly exaggerated and politicized by what they call the remnants of the TPLF ‘junta’ and their backers in the West.
Both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments continued their policy of denial of the deliberate and total economic and livelihood destruction they have inflicted on Tigray and its population. They also continued denying the involvement of Eritrea in the conflict despite the fact that army commanders and regional officials of Ethiopia, foreign governments, and Tigray’s public are confirming their presence.
Urgent need
Customary humanitarian law states that: “The parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need, which is impartial in character and conducted without any adverse distinction, subject to their right of control.”
While the law recognizes that consent of warring parties, including concerned governments, is required for delivering aid, such consent shall not be refused arbitrarily. In particular, “if it is established that a civilian population is threatened with starvation and a humanitarian organization which provides relief on an impartial and non-discriminatory basis is able to remedy the situation, a party is obliged to give consent.”
Yet, as the UN and other humanitarian actors have made it clear the Ethiopian regime is not cooperative and is hindering their efforts through excessive bureaucracy and reluctance to allow them to help people without state intervention and supervision. Furthermore, many of the efforts made so far are limited to some cities under the control of federal forces, and, as a result, millions of Tigrayans living or sheltering in rural Tigray are not getting access to essential goods.
After protests, persistent pressure from all directions, including the United Nations, Europe, humanitarian organizations, the US, the EU, and international media, the Ethiopian government is now opening up the space for the UN and other humanitarian agencies. OCHA has expressed some cautious optimism in this regard.
Compelling reasons
However, the international community must undertake an impartial aid delivery without a delay to prevent human catastrophe for the following reasons:
First, the Ethiopian government is not, and cannot be, a trusted and responsible partner on this matter. The government has been persistently denying access and impeding the humanitarian response. Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said, “in all my years as an aid worker, I have rarely seen a humanitarian response so impeded and unable to deliver in response for so long, to so many with such pressing needs.”
As far as I can tell, the Ethiopian government is doing this because it wants to hide the atrocities committed—and continue to be committed—by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Furthermore, they also want to hide the fact that parts of Tigray have been occupied by Eritrean forces.
Therefore, relying on the Ethiopian government as the main agent of the distribution of aid across Tigray would constitute a serious mistake and complicity in starving the population.
Second, even if we can somehow find the Ethiopian government to be reliable, it does not have control over parts of Tigray that are effectively controlled by the ruthless and inhumane Eritrean forces. There are also parts controlled by Amhara regional forces. These two forces do not know respect for humanity or humanitarian norms. In fact, they are engaged in house-to-house looting of foodstuff, cooking items, and medicine; they are also engaged in burning and vandalizing anything that they think would sustain the civilian population.
Therefore, signing an agreement with Abiy’s administration to manage aid delivery is not going to help unless Eritrea’s regime is restrained and fully understands that using starvation as a weapon and hindering humanitarian assistance are serious war crimes expressly forbidden by the Geneva Conventions 1949 and their supplementary protocols of 1977.
For this to happen, however, the Ethiopian regime must officially admit that Eritrean forces control substantial portions of Tigray, and at least partially admit the atrocities committed by them, which seems highly unlikely.
Finally, at the time of writing this note and appeal, only some Tigrayans who reside in main cities have got very limited access to basic aid in the region. Furthermore, I have received reports from people in Mekele, Axum, and Adwa indicating that party officials are discriminately managing aid distribution along party and family lines. Those in rural areas who are affected the most are not getting access to food and other basic need as a result of the fighting and lack of transparency and impartiality in the aid distribution process.
Necessary measures
To overcome these and other deliberate or inadvertent impediments, it is crucial that the UN, like-minded actors, and the international community make sure that:
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- aid delivery is managed on the basis of the principles of impartiality, non-discrimination, accountability, and transparency.
- operations are led and managed primarily by an impartial body starting from planning, transporting, and identifying those who are most in need to that of actual delivery, in coordination with community elders and local administration.
- the Eritrean leaders, commanders, and soldiers are well informed, reminded, and warned about the consequences of their actions. Humanitarian agencies should therefore consider the Eritrean element in their strategy to undertake a successful operation.
- the post-delivery situation is overseen and assessed by aid workers and community leaders so as to make sure the Eritrean army (and Amhara forces in the west and south) won’t expropriate and/or destroy the assistance being delivered.
- reliance on sovereignty and non-interference as excuses for having effective and exclusive control over aid delivery is strongly rejected. This excuse is contrary to humanitarian norms and international practices. The UN and other actors must be able to travel and do their job in urban and rural Tigray, carrying their flags and other protected emblems freely.
Whether these and other necessary measures would be taken to avert the unfolding human tragedy without a swift, binding and decisive United Nations Security Council resolution on the matter remains.
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[…] Mistir Sew: The looming famine in Tigray […]
Mr. Mistir Sew (Secret person) chose to write anonymously, if his/her claims are based on facts that can be verified and no one can disputed, why is it necessary to write anonymously? How do we know he/she isn’t motivated politically to achieve certain goals? How do we know that these aren’t one of fabricated false information? How can we verify them?
Tigray bravest peoppel tigray will survive!!!
Ashu!
It’s silly of you to say things that have no grip. You deliberately ignore the testimonies of the residents and blame the murdered in the settlement of Mei Kedra. In doing so you are trying to turn the bowl upside down according to which in fact the killer becomes a victim, and the victim becomes a killer just like a Metekel zone. Man be honest with yourself The lie is always revealed even if you try to look at it through stories.
Avi Ahmad Ali turned Ethiopia into a war arena. The government is not helping the citizens in anything !, in fact it is fighting them. Today I can tell you that in areas that are supposed to be safe for citizens like Makla, Shira, Axum, Adva all the big cities. There is murder of children aged 6 and over, and daily rape of girls under the age of 17
How can you explain that? If Avi Ahmad Ali is the prime minister and not Isayas Afwerki his one word to the senior officers The murder of the children and the rape of the girls would have been avoided. I want to think that you too have children, think if something were happened to your little child. And your prime minister in a speech to the nation is lying that there was no murder or rape in all the cities. TPLF is the public’s choice and you and the Prime Minister should respect them. This is the game of democracy you can not force anyone to join by force in this or that party. Tplf will not sit in the prosperity party of Avi Ahmad Ali. In fact, from now on Tigray (Tplf) will be a state and not a province.
Tigray will overcome,
Tigray will defeat her enemies
Can you tell me the boundary of the republic of Tigray. I want to visit.
Good to remind that, the law-enforcement operation in Tigray has started when the TPLF (the military junta) has slaughtered soldiers while sleeping at the northern command. Which, by the way, was confirmed by their own port-parole. Beside this incident, TPLF had already committed genocides in many parts of the country; the recent one took place in the town called “Mai Khadra”. I have to remind you that, most of the perpetrators escaped to different Sudanese refugee camps and some of them went to “kola-Temben”. The EU, the USA along with the UN should help the federal government of Ethiopia on its effort to bring criminals to justice. In addition, all of us should join hands to help the government on its effort of bringing what is needed to the displaced people in Tigray, and rebuild the damaged infrastructures in various villages of Tigray. As far as I know, the government is trying its best, but pocket of this criminal group genociders are jeopardizing the effort, to show the world that the situation is beyond the federal government’s capacity and urging international aid organizations and the UN to intervene directly instead. (to my amazement, this view is shared by UNOCHA too). They are endeavoring to make this option comes true, because, they hoped, they will manage to smuggle their genociders from their foxholes to Sudan. To give one example, following destruction committed on telecommunication and electricity infrastructures in the region, the federal government, after a long and costly operation, had managed to restore electricity, which, once again was jeopardized by these criminals the day before yesterday. Besides, the UNOCHA is not considered as trust worthy & impartial partner in Ethiopia, since, all of their statements are nothing but harsh & divisive criticism on the federal gov’t of Ethiopia. On top of that, UNOCHA is insisting to have access to all parts of Tigray with the full immunity which will allow all their convoys not be searched and without any military escort. Unless or other wise one is silly, what they are saying is very clear; it means, let us get those TPLF criminals, hide them in our convoys and smuggle them to Sudan or to Addis-Ababa, so that, they could easily fly out of the country with all the blood on their hands. It is clear that, UNOCHA is functioning as propaganda machine of the TPLF, who, are engaged aggressively on the digital arena in order to deceive the world with their fake news.
Anyone who wants to know what is going on in Tigray and help, please contact either the federal government of Ethiopia or the Tigrian Regional governor. Currently, the federal gov’t is undertaking a huge resource mobilization campaign to Tigray.
I can assure you, that this is not the information coming from the UN and Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations.
So who should we believe??????
The federal government?
The humanitarian organisations?
The TPLF?
Out friemds and contacts in the region?