On July 30th 2021, Ethiopia suspended the operations within its territory of two International Aid Groups, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders. This startling intervention by Ethiopia’s government comes at a time when reliable international experts predict that hundreds of thousands of civilians in Tigray province including many Eritrean refugees face famine, starvation and death because of an acute lack of food, water, and medical aid. This move comes at the very same time that aid agencies are attempting to get badly needed food, medication and other supplies into an area where Ethiopia’s government has been accused of blocking assistance.
The reasons given for the suspension of these two aid programmes are surprising and unconvincing. A spokesperson for the Norwegian agency said the stated reasons for the 3-month suspension were “public advocacy” and failure to obtain proper permissions for foreign staff. But advocacy for needy people is an accepted form of fundraising used by all aid agencies.
The Ethiopian government spokesman for the Tigray emergency task force, Redwan Hussein, alleged in July that aid groups are “playing a destructive role” in the nine-month conflict and even arming the Tigrayan forces, without producing the slightest evidence to back these most serious of allegations. Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs , warned Ethiopian authorities that blanket accusations against aid workers in the country’s embattled Tigray region and elsewhere were a most “dangerous” tactic and must stop at once. He said that such blanket allegations are “unfair” and need to be backed up by evidence. It is clear that such unsubstantiated claims and the suspension of major aid programmes can only harm those in most desperate need.
It is important to note that, throughout the conflict in Tigray province, the Ethiopian government has attempted to shut down all communications and disable every method of getting news out from the area to the rest of the world. Also aid workers in the area have been killed, without any explanations or apologies offered–Three employees of Doctors Without Borders were killed in Tigray by unknown attackers. It has been evident for the last eight months that the government of Ethiopia does not want any unofficial news from the conflict region to get out; only government-controlled news is permitted.
Could it be that the Ethiopian government is not concerned so much about the success of the humanitarian work of international aid agencies but more that they are reliable sources of unbiased and independent news, who may expose criminal activities against civilians such as the widespread massacres and rapes by Eritrean and Ethiopian troops frequently reported by Tigrayan victims?
It is believed that the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, recently visited Ethiopia this week; it is to be hoped that she may had considerable influence both with the Ethiopian government and the responses of her own government to the blocking of the work of these two aid agencies.
Human Rights Concern-Eritrea urgently calls upon the Ethiopian government: –
- To prioritize humanitarian relief for the civilian population of Tigray and Eritrean refugees over all other concerns
- To withdraw the blanket accusations against the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders until and only if reliable evidence to support these accusations can be produced
- To reinstate immediately the programmes of these two aid agencies in Ethiopia.
- To wholeheartedly support the work of the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Wtithout Borders in order to enable them assist both Eritrean refugees and the ethnic Tigrayan population.
Human Rights Concern-Eritrea calls upon the governments of the USA, UK, EU, and all UN member states to urge the Ethiopia prioritize humanitarian aid to civilians and Eritrean refugees in Tigray, and to lift the unjustified suspension of the work of the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
