Eritrean refugees in Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps in Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia, are dying from hunger and hunger-related diseases. No food rations have been allowed to reach them for over two months. People are dying from starvation, and children particularly are dying from malnutrition-related illnesses. They do not have sufficient drinking water, and there are no medicines or medical care available to them.
Ethiopia’s blockade and its refusal to allow aid convoys to reach Tigray are responsible for mass starvation, not only in the refugee camps, but also across the entire region. Mass Starvation of the civilian population appears to be a war strategy by the Ethiopian authorities. This contravenes all the international treaties governing the treatment of refugees and civilians in war zones.
More than 25,000 Eritrean refugees live in Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in the Tigray region. Increasing numbers of deaths are directly linked to the lack of food, medicine and health services. Extreme hunger is rising inexorably because supplies have been prevented from reaching them by the Ethiopian military and its allies. Thousands of lives are at risk.
Ethiopian Government forces have been waging a war in the Tigray region against the Tigrayan Defence Forces since November 2020. Eritrean Refugee camps were attacked earlier in this conflict, notably by soldiers from the Eritrean army, when two of the four camps were destroyed, and many refugees force-marched away. It appears that neither side can hope for a military victory. Only a negotiated ceasefire can solve the imminent threat to hundreds of thousands of lives, including the 25,000 Eritrean refugees.
Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRCE) urgently calls upon the government of Ethiopia, and in particular the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed: –
- To heed the urgent warnings of the UNHCR concerning the imminent danger of mass starvation and death in the camps and in the entire Tigray region.
- To take urgent action to arrange a temporary ceasefire.
- In furtherance of Ethiopia’s stated humanitarian truce, to take immediate steps to allow large quantities of food and medical supplies to be taken into Tigray region, to the refugee camps and the civilian population, with no distinctions made as to the ethnicity of the recipients.
HRCE calls on all member states of the United Nations to put diplomatic pressure on Mr. Ahmed’s Ethiopian government to implement these urgent actions immediately, reminding them of their responsibilities under international law for the survival and welfare of all refugees and civilians in Tigray region.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
