UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged Ethiopia’s prime minister and the leader of its restive Tigray region to immediately halt the latest eruption of hostilities, which has set back efforts to restore peace and tackle a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
Guterres also called for “the creation of conditions to restart an effective political dialogue” in separate phone calls with Ethiopian leader Abiy Ahmed and Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Tigray authorities alleged Wednesday that Ethiopia’s military had launched a “large-scale” offensive for the first time in a year in Tigray, while the government countered that Tigray forces attacked first.
The conflict began in November 2020, killing thousands of people in Africa’s second-most populous country. Now, as then, both sides have acted at a moment when the world was focused elsewhere — the U.S. presidential election in 2020 and the six-month mark of the Ukraine war Wednesday.
The conflict had calmed in recent months amid slow-moving mediation efforts. But last week, Ahmed’s spokeswoman asserted that Tigray authorities were “refusing to accept peace talks,” and this week, Ethiopia’s military warned the public against reporting troop movements.
On Wednesday, the United Nations said Tigray forces forcibly entered a World Food Program warehouse in the regional capital, Mekele, and took 12 fuel tankers meant for the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid.
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths condemned the diversion of the tankers in a statement Thursday, saying they carrying over 570,000 liters of fuel that was “meant to help the U.N. and its partners bring humanitarian supplies to people who badly need assistance.”
“Without them, people will be left without food, nutrition supplements, medicines and other essential items,” he warned. “At a time when malnutrition and food insecurity are rising, the consequences can be dire.”
Griffiths demanded an end to the obstruction of humanitarian aid and protection of supplies throughout Ethiopia. He renewed calls to restore basic services in Tigray, including banking and electricity, “which would contribute substantially to an improvement in the humanitarian situation in that region.”