• It fulfills parameters leading to war crime
ADDIS ABABA – GETFACTet stated that terrorist TPLF has weaponized hunger through blocking humanitarian aid and expanding war outside of Tigray state.
TPLF aggression has caused devastating humanitarian crisis and leading to an exacerbating hunger used as a weapon of war. The roads leading towards Tigray are blocked and access to Mekelle is restricted for humanitarian assistance due to TPLF expansion of the war to neighboring Afar state.
The GETFACTet heat map generated based on the data from International Armed Conflict Location and Event Database (ACLED), dating from June 2021 to December 2021, shows nearly 100 TPLF triggered conflicts in Afar state blocking routes and corridors that are critical for transporting aid to Tigray and other TPLF occupied areas.
From December 2020 to June 2021, Ethiopian government provided 70% percent of the assistance to Tigray region. In June, 2021, the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew from the Tigray region to provide relief to farmers to continue their harvest, considering the Ethiopian short harvest sessions.
After withdrawal, the Ethiopian government assigned Semera in Afar as a corridor for international aid, such as WFP and USAID, to transport food and other lifesaving humanitarian assistance from ports in Djibouti the report stated indicating that there are three possible routes to Mekelle from the humanitarian hub in Samera.
The shortest route directly goes to Mekelle passing through Afar Zone 2, Abala, and the two other routes pass through Afar Zone 4-5, Chifra and Bati, to take the Dessie-Kombolcha main road, but these roads are continuously interrupted and aid trucks with humanitarian assistance are blocked by TPLF instigated conflicts, GETFACTet stated.
“During the TPLF invasion of the Afar state going as far as Mille, several atrocities are reported including mass killings of civilians in Galicoma and Chifra, looting of humanitarian aid warehouses in addition to hospitals, schools, and other public and private properties by terrorist TPLF forces and blocking humanitarian aid is critical to civilians who are in need—which is vividly tantamount to a war crime.”
Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian Diaspora around the world are protesting weekly asking the U.S. and Western countries to unequivocally denounce the TPLF brutal invasion of Afar and Amhara state which has been causing a severe humanitarian crisis. Many are questioning why the TPLF forces are not held accountable and condemned for blocking humanitarian assistance, which has been a strategy for using hunger as a weapon of war but the U.S. and the west have uttered no word and haven’t tried to take measures against TPLF, it was learnt.
BY MULATU BELACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN SUNDAY EDITION 9 JANUARY 2022
