Ethiopians fleeing the ongoing fighting in the Tigray region carry their belongings after crossing the Setit River on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia, in the eastern state of Kassala, Sudan on December 16, 2020. REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in Tigray, Ethiopia, the UN chief of security told the Security Council on Thursday, urging the US envoy to challenge the body’s silence and ask: “Is not the life of Africa as important as those who experience conflict? other countries? “
UN official Mark Lowcock said the humanitarian crisis in Tigray had worsened over the past month with challenges to access and people starving to death. He said the world body had seen no evidence that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea – accused of massacres and killings in Tigray – had withdrawn.
“To be very clear: the conflict is not over yet and things are improving,” Lowcock said in his notes for the United States-requested private briefing.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the briefing on Thursday was the fifth private council meeting since fighting between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s former ruling party began in November, according to diplomats familiar with her. comments.
“The Security Council is united on Syria, Yemen and even on Burma, where we were able to come together to make a statement,” she said, according to diplomats. “We ask the council to reconsider a statement on Ethiopia. … Victims need to know that the Security Council cares about this conflict.”
The council has so far been unable to agree on a public statement on Tigray, with Western countries advocating against Russia and China, which diplomats say raises the question of whether the body – charged with maintaining international peace and security – at the crisis must be involved.
The conflict killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes in the mountainous region of about 5 million. Eritrea has helped Ethiopian troops, although Eritrea has repeatedly denied that its forces are in Tigray.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has acknowledged the Eritrean presence and the United Nations and the United States have demanded that Eritrean troops withdraw from Tigray.
“Neither the UN nor any of the humanitarian agencies we work with have seen evidence of Eritrean withdrawal,” Lowcock said.
GIRLS AS YOUNG AS 8 DIRECTED
Lowcock said he had received a report earlier Thursday that 150 people in Tigray had died of starvation and warned that “hunger as a weapon of war is a crime”.
Dr Fasika Amdeselassie, the leading public health official for the interim government in Tigray, told Reuters that at least 829 cases of sexual assault had been reported at five hospitals since the conflict began. read more
“There is no doubt that sexual violence in this conflict is being used as a weapon of war,” Lowcock said, adding that most rapes were committed by men in uniform, with accusations against all warring parties.
“Nearly a quarter of the reports received by one agency relate to gang rape, with several men assaulting the victim. In some cases, women have been repeatedly raped over a period of days. Girls as young as eight are targeted , “said Lowcock.
UN Ambassador to Ethiopia Taye Atskeselassie Amde told Reuters the government was investigating all rights violations. He accused Lowcock of ‘not behaving like a humanitarian, but of a hesitation determined to demand some kind of retaliation.
“Human rights violations are too serious and serious to be subject to speculation. It is unfortunate that the head of OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has used such an act before the UN Security Council,” he said. and added that “there is no gap in humanitarian access.”
Eritrea’s UN mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lowcock’s comments. Last month, Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said that sexual violence and rape were “an abomination to Eritrean society” and that they should be severely punished if they were to take place.
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