WORLD NEWS | UN, others cite new displacement in Ethiopia’s Tigray

ADDIS ABABA (Ethiopia), April 14 (AP) — Despite a peace deal late last year, troops from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have mobilized tens of thousands of troops in recent weeks, according to aid workers. The Menti Gray ethnic group was driven from the disputed territory in the north of the country. Internal agency document seen by The Associated Press.

The Mai Tsebri district in the northwest of Tigray is close to the district border with Amhara State. It changed hands several times during the war, which broke out in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire in November. The Amharas claim the area as their own.

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Some 47,000 people uprooted from Mai Tsebri have traveled to the small town of Endabaguna, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) to the north, since early March, according to United Nations data seen by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Another report, prepared by humanitarian agencies, said residents had fled Mai Tsebri due to “harassment, racial profiling and direct threats” from irregular Amharic forces who also carried out “evictions”.

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The report added that no aid has been delivered to Ndabaguna since the displaced began arriving. As a result, it said, they were “on the brink of starvation”.

Displaced people in Endabaguna take shelter in a reception center originally built by the United Nations and the Ethiopian government for Eritrean refugees from the border with Tigray. The site was severely damaged during the war.

A rescue worker who recently visited the center said the situation there was “very bad” and the number of people was “increasing every day”.

“Roofs and plumbing were damaged, there were no toilets and latrines, rooms had windows and doors looted (or) damaged, and there was no proper water supply,” said the rescue worker, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. things.

Amharan authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Another aid worker, who also requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said many of the recent uprooted from Mai Tsebri were displaced a second time and had already been forced to leave their homes in western Tigray.

The Amharic army annexed Sitigray early in the war. They have been accused by the US State Department of “ethnic cleansing” after forcibly expelling hundreds of thousands of Tigray people from the region.

Aid deliveries to Tigray have resumed after two years of restrictions under the latest ceasefire agreement. Aid workers, however, said Amharan troops continued to block food distribution around Mai Tsebri and residents reported killings.

A resident of Mai Tsebri, Teferi Muley, said he fled the area in November after being threatened by the Amharic army, which accused him of helping Tigray rebels. He said he returned to the nearby village of Haida in March, where he witnessed Amharic troops gunning down several artisanal gold miners.

Last week the Ethiopian government said it planned to merge security forces in 11 federal regions into the national army or police. This sparked a wave of protests across Amhara and a gun battle between federal troops and local Amharan forces who refused to disarm.

Humanitarian officials believe the unrest could increase the number of displaced people in Mai Tsebri, which already has displaced an average of 150 families a day, according to another aid agency’s assessment. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)