While the tension between mr. Abiy and the TPLF increased, Mr. Isaias saw an opportunity to restore old scores and re-establish himself in the region, said Martin Plaut, author of ‘Understanding Eritrea’ and a senior research fellow at the University of London.
“These are typical Isaiahs,” he said. Plaut said. “He wants to project power in ways that are completely unthinkable for the leader of such a small country.”
Aid groups warn that Tigray will soon face a humanitarian disaster, without immediate access. The war broke out just as villagers were preparing to reap their harvest, in a region already teeming with locusts and recurring droughts.
Refugees are especially vulnerable. According to the United Nations, 96,000 Eritrean refugees were in Tigray at the beginning of the fighting, although some camps have since emptied. An internal UN report of 12 December, seen by The Times, described the situation at Hitsats as “extremely dire”, with no food or water.
Further north at the Shimelba camp, Eritrean soldiers beat refugees, tied their hands and left them in the sun all day, said Efrem, a resident who later fled to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
“They poured milk on their bodies so they could be swarmed by flies,” he said.
Later, Efrem said, the soldiers gathered 40 refugees and forced them to travel back across the border to Eritrea.
Declan Walsh reports from Nairobi, Kenya, and Simon Marks from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. reported by Washington, a Christiaan Triebert of New York.