The government of Ethiopia has admitted that its troops fired at UN aid workers who allegedly broke through two checkpoints in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Briefing foreign Journalists on Tuesday State of Emergency Spokesperson Redwan Hussien said the UN aid workers broke two check points and tried to reach areas where “they were not supposed to go”.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said four people were in a convoy trying to assess the roads, which “needs to be done before a larger UN aid convoys go in”.
The UN staffers have since been freed after they were told that they should not do the same in a country like Ethiopia which has been governed by a state since more than one thousand before.
He said the security forces fired at the UN convoy which refused to stop. Leaders of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), who are being hunted by the federal police, could use the UN convoys to flee.
An alarmed UN said it is “engaging at the highest level with the federal government to express our concerns” more than a week after it and the government signed a deal to allow humanitarian access. The deal, crucially, allows aid only in areas under federal government control.
While Ethiopia’s government says the fighting has stopped, the leaders of the rebellious TPLF have asserted that the conflict continues.
Sporadic shooting remains in Tigray and humanitarian assistance must be escorted by defence forces, Redwan said.
Amid growing allegations of massacres and attacks on refugee camps inside Tigray, the UN human rights office has not responded to a question about whether it has begun investigating possible war crimes.
MG/abj/APA