United States has welcomed the progress in securing more regular access for humanitarian assistance to communities in need in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia.
In a statement released by Secretary of State, Antony Blinken on Tuesday, while noted that In the past seven days, more than 1,100 trucks have reached Tigray to deliver life-saving food.
Malnutrition treatment, health supplies, and other essential relief items to those who are most vulnerable as a result of the hard work of all the humanitarians committed to saving lives.
Blinken stated that US particularly appreciate the cooperation of the Government of Ethiopia, Afar regional authorities, and Tigrayan regional authorities to facilitate the delivery of this assistance.
"As well as the efforts of the United Nations agencies, international organizations, U.S. government partners, and humanitarian organizations across Ethiopia.
"We encourage the parties to continue to build on this momentum and advance to talks to achieve a sustainable end of conflict", Blinken added.
Calling for immediate restoration of essential services in conflict-affected areas and support an inclusive political process to provide security and prosperity for all Ethiopians, and accountability for human rights violations committed by all parties.
Meanwhile, for more than a year and a half, a largely invisible campaign of ethnic cleansing has played out in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray.
Older people, women, and children have been loaded onto trucks and forced out of their villages and hometowns.
Men have been herded into overcrowded detention sites, where many have died of disease, starvation, or torture. In total, several hundred thousand Tigrayans have been forcibly uprooted because of their ethnicity.
These crimes are an outgrowth of a war that began in November 2020, pitting Ethiopian federal forces and their allies, including troops from Eritrea and the neighboring Ethiopian region of Amhara, against forces linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which once led Ethiopia’s coalition government.
Early in the conflict, Amhara security forces and officials gained control of Western Tigray, a long-contested area of the region, where with the acquiescence and possible participation of Ethiopia’s federal military, they have carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan communities.
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