The United Nations Friday announced its decision to pull out of Dessie and Kombolcha cities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where there is a dire humanitarian situation, drawing criticism from the government.
The UN’s decision came after rebel forces looted warehouses in the cities and fears that security in the region cannot be guaranteed.
The government of Ethiopia says the decision is “irrational and partial”
More than eight million people are food-insecure in the region due to the invasions of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Amhara and Afar regions, according to National Disaster Risk Management Commission.
Speaking to reporters along with the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ethiopia Catherine Sozi, National Disaster Risk Management Commissioner Mitiku Kassa said the UN has failed to squarely condemn the destructive acts of the TPLF that exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation in all of the affected areas.
“The UN should openly condemn the TPLF for using food as a weapon of war in the Amhara region by blocking aid supply from people who are under the Safety Net Program,” the Commissioner said.
He also called on the UN to cooperate with the government of Ethiopia in supporting the more than eight million food-insecure people because of the TPLF’s invasion of the Amhara and Afar regions.
Sozi, on her part said the TPLF troops looted humanitarian aid warehouses in Kombolcha with the participation of some members of the community halting the UN aid services in the area.
Commissioner Kassa said the report claimed that the TPLF soldiers had looted the warehouses and staged a drama afterward, taking pictures of local people who pretended to participate in the looting.
Commissioner Kassa questioned the UN for being reluctant to denounce the TPLF for hijacking more than 1000 aid trucks using them to transport fighters from Tigray to the Amhara region.
He also criticized the UN’s silence over the 203 unreturned trucks that entered the Tigray region since November 23, 2021.
Sozi also said shortages of fuel, cash, and some hurdles in Afar, have made the humanitarian aid supply to the Tigray region challenging.
She expressed hope that consultations with the people and administrators of Afar would give solutions to the 115 trucks loaded with aid supplies that are ready to head to Tigray.
Commissioner Kassa downplayed the story of fuel shortages in Tigray, recalling that the TPLF had recently looted the Kombolcha fuel depot and seized 14 million liters of fuel that the government had left in Mekelle before evacuating its troops.
MG/as/APA