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Need help: Ethiopian refugees in Sudan
Photo: ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP
Corpses on the streets, bombs, heavy fighting: a comprehensive humanitarian crisis, the UN warns, is currently unfolding in northern Ethiopia.
But nobody is allowed to help.
The airspace is closed, the streets are blocked, all communication channels are cut.
Since November 4th, the central government of Ethiopia has been fighting against the leadership of the northern province of Tigray.
And the conflict continues to intensify.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled Tigray, of armed militias and orchestrated an attack on an army base.
The TPLF denies this.
UN representatives have been holding talks about opening a humanitarian corridor for days.
You speak to the government in Addis Ababa as well as to the leadership of the Tigray region.
So far without result.
Food, medicine and other relief supplies are stored in UN warehouses.
But the aid organizations don't get them to Tigray.
Aid organizations in a panic
On Monday, the Ethiopian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs assured: »We will come up with a solution in a few days.
We will work out a plan to deal with the humanitarian issue before it becomes a crisis. "
But the words were followed by little action, and the panic among the aid organizations is growing.
A high-ranking UN employee complained about a "de facto economic blockade".
The country director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR speaks of a disaster.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that more than 1.1 million people in Tigray and the two neighboring regions are expected to need help as a result of the conflict.
Even before the fighting between the Ethiopian government and the armed forces of the Tigray region broke out in November, up to 200,000 refugees were living in the area, according to the UN.
Now, as the conflict deepens, tens of thousands more are on the run.
The Red Cross reports that hospitals are running out of supplies.
In the refugee camps in Tigray, the fuel, which is particularly needed for the generators for pumping water, is running out.
"Telecommunications are interrupted, road access is blocked, and fuel, water and cash in particular for our remaining employees and the civilian population to buy food are becoming increasingly scarce," says Catherine Sozi, head of the UN mission in Ethiopia.
Tens of thousands of people have fled to Sudan
"We only have fuel for a few days," warns Ann Encontre from the UN refugee agency in Ethiopia.
"So you can imagine how desperate everything is."
Aid organization employees who were able to leave Tigray talk about chaotic conditions.
From thousands of people trying to escape the fighting.
The local administration is trying to accommodate them in schools and public buildings.
Tens of thousands of people have since fled the country.
30,000 refugees have already arrived in Sudan.
Every day there are around 4,000 more.
The international aid organization Care even fears that more than 200,000 people could arrive there in the coming weeks and warns of one of the worst humanitarian disasters in this case.
“The people at the border are exhausted and scared.
Over half of them are women and children.
Many of the women are pregnant or nursing mothers and are therefore exposed to particular health risks, ”says Tesfaye Hussein, Care Program Director in Sudan.
“Everyone is waiting to be taken to government-designated shelters, but they are already full.
The situation is terrible. "
Militias who kill civilians with machetes
The UN refugee agency also says that the camps are not prepared for this onslaught.
Refugees who have made it across the border report of militias killing civilians with machetes.
They report heavy bombing from the air.
Others report corpses scattered on the streets.
In a recently leaked EU report on November 10, the authors fear a war that could spread to the coast of the Red Sea.
In the worst case, they fear nothing less than the collapse of Ethiopia - and thus millions more refugees.
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