Hundreds of people were murdered when an armed gang assaulted a relief camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia’s Afar region. Regional officials claimed on Monday that around 200 people, along with over 100 children in Ethiopia, were murdered in the Friday attack.
UN Reacts
“It follows months of armed conflict across Tigray that have placed some 400,000 people, including at least 160,000 children, in famine-like conditions. Four million people are in crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in Tigray and adjoining regions of Afar and Amhara. The recent fighting has newly displaced over 100,000, adding to the 2 million people already uprooted from their homes,” the agency boss added.
After the federal government withdrew its soldiers from Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, in late June and announced a unilateral ceasefire, TPLF forces started an offensive in neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.
As the Tigray violence spreads to other regions, experts fear that the once-united Horn country may disintegrate.
Some commentators have previously warned that Ethiopia may become the next Yugoslavia, alluding to the collapse of the once-European country’s former republics, which broke into separate states.
A few days ago, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Hibir Ethiopia Democratic Party, two Ethiopian opposition political organizations, called for inclusive political discussion to end Ethiopia’s problems.
Opposition parties urged warring parties to engage in dialogue in order to save the country from utter catastrophe.
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