NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a liaison with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia on Thursday, expressed “grave concern” about the crisis in the Tigray region and called for “immediate humanitarian access. , total and unimpeded to avoid further loss of life, ”said a US spokesman.
There were no immediate comments from the Ethiopian authorities.
The call is the most recent this week that world leaders have held with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while Ethiopia faces growing pressure to open Tigray to journalists, independent investigators and much more humanitarian aid.
The Tigray conflict, which has entered its fourth month, remains largely in the shadows. Thousands of people were killed while Ethiopian and Allied forces were fighting the now fugitive Tigray government, which has dominated the country’s government for nearly three decades. Most of the population of 6 million need emergency aid.
Abiy also spoke this week with the French president and German chancellor, whose governments have expressed similar wishes about opening Tigray.
Hunger has become a major concern in Tigray. “Many families are expected to have run out of food stocks or to run out of food stocks in the next two months,” according to a new report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which is funded and administered by the US
The report published on Thursday says that more parts of central and eastern Tigray are likely to enter Emergency Phase 4, one step below hunger, in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the United Nations humanitarian chief told the UN Security Council in particular that Ethiopia may not have control of up to 40% of the territory in Tigray and does not have full command of the forces of neighboring Eritrea operating there.
Details of Mark Lowcock’s briefing were shared by diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because Wednesday’s meeting was behind closed doors.
The information available indicates that the Ethiopian government now controls 60% to 80% of the territory in Tigray, Lowcock told diplomats. And some of the forces that sided with the Ethiopians at the start of the conflict are now pursuing their own goals, he said.
The Ethiopian government denied the presence of Eritrean soldiers, a staunch enemy of former Tigray leaders, but witnesses described looting, killing and other widespread abuse.
“Eritrean forces are almost everywhere in Tigray,” a man who managed to travel from northern Tigray to the regional capital, Mekele, told the Associated Press this week. He described the widespread looting of health centers and people dying from lack of care, with little or no communication or transport connections to rural areas. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about family members.
A senior Tigray government official, Mesfin Desalegn, in an interview with the pro-government channel Abbay Media this week, said Eritrean soldiers entered the conflict “to destroy” Tigray’s forces, “but it should have been administered. have been controlled. “
People were “slaughtered”, he said, describing an atmosphere of “total revenge”. He called on Eritrean forces to “stop what they are doing”.
The United States told the AP last month that it pressured senior Eritrean officials to withdraw its forces from Tigray immediately. The United States did not say how Eritrea, one of the most secret nations in the world, responded. The information minister of Eritrea has denounced in recent days “frantic smear campaigns”.
The fighting in Tigray has the potential to destabilize other parts of Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa and the Horn of Africa anchor, as security forces are deployed in the region, the UN humanitarian chief told the UN Security Council. Safety.
Lowcock also said that the UN has received reports that food is scarce in the markets mainly because it was harvest time when the conflict started. The main supply routes remain cut, money is scarce and some people are eating leaves to survive.
The Ethiopian government has said it is reaching more and more people with help, and in particular told Biden government officials that life is returning to “normality”.
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Lederer reported from the United Nations.