{"id":10007,"date":"2021-09-25T12:44:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T12:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.axumawian.com\/?p=10007"},"modified":"2021-09-25T12:44:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T12:44:34","slug":"our-people-are-starving-tigray-is-quickly-becoming-africas-latest-forgotten-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=10007","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our people are starving\u2019: Tigray is quickly becoming Africa\u2019s latest forgotten war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Evidence of siege in the Ethiopian region with millions facing \u2018worst famine in decades\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Source: The Irish Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

September 25, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n

An emaciated child with large eyes stares at the camera. Another photo shows a boy, his tiny legs bent and ribs protruding. These were images smuggled out of a hospital<\/a> in Mekelle, the capital of northern Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region, where millions of civilians affected by a 10-month-long war remain under what the United Nations calls \u201ca de facto humanitarian aid blockade<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

In July, the United Nations<\/a> said 400,000 people in the region were experiencing famine and a further 1.8 million people were on the brink of it. The UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF<\/a>) predicted that more than 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition over the following year. The UN\u2019s then-acting humanitarian aid chief, Ramesh Rajasingham<\/a>, called it \u201cthe worst famine situation we have seen in decades\u201d. \u201cClose to 5.2 million people required humanitarian assistance, the great majority of them women and children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

War broke out in November 2020, when Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, the winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, announced a military offensive aimed at toppling Tigray\u2019s regional ruling party, the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF). Abiy said this was a necessary response to TPLF attacks on military camps. Since the conflict began, thousands of people have been killed and more than two million displaced.<\/p>\n\n\n

In late June \u2013 when the TPLF managed to recapture much of Tigray, including Mekelle \u2013 communications with the outside world were largely cut off.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Kindu Fenta (17) reads a book inside a classroom which was allegedly looted by pro-TPLF rebels in Zarima, Ethiopia. Photograph: Amanuel Sileshi\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

All sides in the war have been accused of perpetrating human rights abuses and mass killings. In July, Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland\u2019s permanent representative to the UN, said Ireland had been calling for an open discussion on Tigray at the UN Security Council. \u201cWomen, we know, have been subjected to sexual violence\u2026 We\u2019re deeply worried people are starving to death\u2026 We want to see the Council assume its responsibility,\u201d she told journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n

This week, Dr Hayelom Kebede, research director of Mekelle\u2019s Ayder Referral Hospital,\u00a0told AFP<\/a>\u00a0news agency he was witnessing people dying of starvation. \u201cThe bad thing is you will see people in the throes of death, but they will not die immediately. It takes time, after their body is weakened and weakened and weakened. It\u2019s more horrific than bullet deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

At least 50 children in the hospital needed intensive care treatment for malnutrition, he said, but medics had run out of medicine and food stock to treat them.<\/p>\n\n\n

Three of MSF\u2019s staff members were killed in June, and at least a dozen\u00a0aid workers have been killed<\/a>\u00a0since the conflict began last November<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield<\/a>, has said denial of aid access by the Ethiopian government is an indication of \u201ca siege\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

At the end of July, humanitarian agency the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and medical charity M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF), were forced to suspend work<\/a> in Tigray after the Ethiopian government accused them of \u201cspreading misinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

NRC had previously worked in camps sheltering more than 25,000 Eritrean refugees, which were destroyed in what Jan Egeland<\/a>, the NRC\u2019s secretary general, called \u201ca rampage of burning and looting by armed men\u201d, which was deepening \u201can already dire crisis for millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

MSF said it had to stop work in the Amhara, Gambella and Somali regions of Ethiopia, as well as in the west and northwest of Tigray region. MSF staff had spoken out about the destruction of health facilities<\/a> and witnessing the executions of civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cBefore the fighting broke out in early November, Tigray had one of the best health systems in the whole of Ethiopia, but now the health system has almost completely collapsed with dire consequences for the whole population,\u201d Kate Nolan<\/a>, an MSF emergency coordinator, told The Irish Times in March.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cBlanket accusations [against] humanitarian aid workers need to stop \u2026 They need to be backed up by evidence if there is any and, frankly, it\u2019s dangerous,\u201d said Martin Griffiths,<\/a> the UN\u2019s new humanitarian chief, in August.<\/p>\n\n\n

Three of MSF\u2019s staff members were killed in June, and at least a dozen aid workers have been killed<\/a> since the conflict began last November.<\/p>\n\n\n

As Tigrayans in Ethiopia suffer under the communication blackout, relatives elsewhere have turned to the internet to appeal on their behalf. Writing in Teen Vogue, activist Ariam Kidane<\/a> said two months passed before her family abroad learnt her grandmother had died in Tigray. \u201cThe Tigrayan diaspora, meanwhile, has used the internet to bring awareness to the ongoing genocide \u2013 from making TikToks about what constitutes genocide, to sharing personal accounts of escaping the region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Last week, Ethiopians in Ireland<\/a> staged a protest outside the D\u00e1il, where they held signs with messages like \u201cend Tigray siege\u201d and \u201cchildren in Tigray are dying,\u201d while calling on the Irish Government to do more to help their friends and relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWherever you go in Tigray right now you see our mass graves,\u201d said Desta Fitwi, one of the protesters. \u201cI know seven people who have been killed: children, men and women\u2026 Since last June we don\u2019t know what is happening to our families\u2026 We want the Irish Government to speak up for Tigray. To use every leverage that the Irish Government has in order to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to end the siege and allow humanitarian access to the people, because our people are starving right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evidence of siege in the Ethiopian region with millions facing \u2018worst famine in decades\u2019 Source: The Irish Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32,78],"class_list":["post-10007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-english","tag-the-irish-times"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",300,160,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",620,330,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",590,314,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1.jpg",600,319,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/90-1-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"Article<\/a>","tag_info":"Article","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}