Nine million people risk displacement from the escalating conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the United Nations said, warning that the federal government’s declaration of a state of emergency was blocking food and other aid.
About 600,000 people in Tigray depend on food aid to survive, while another 1 million receive other forms of support, all of which are disrupted, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released Saturday.
Ethiopia´s prime minister has sought to defend a major military action against the country´s defiant Tigray region Sunday, and urged citizens not to target the ethnic Tigrayan people amid fears of civil war.
At least 60 people have been wounded and six killed in one location along the Tigray border alone, Doctors Without Borders said Saturday.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted that his military campaign is to bring the Tigray region to abide by Ethiopia's "rule of law."
"The government´s law enforcement action in Tigray aims to bring the greedy Mekele junta under the rule of law and maintain the constitutional order. This step will benefit the widest Tigrayans more than anyone else," Abiy tweeted. "I also urge all Ethiopians to take responsibility for ensuring that Tigrayans do not fall prey to any illegal activity that follows the government´s actions."
The conflict pits two heavily armed forces against each other in the heart of the strategic but vulnerable Horn of Africa region, and experts worry that neighboring countries, including Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia could be sucked in.
Diplomats and others assert that the conflict in Tigray could destabilize other parts of Ethiopia, Africa´s second-most populous country with 110 million people, scores of ethnic groups, and other regions that have sought more autonomy even as the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tries to hold the country together with exhortations of national unity.
Communications remain largely cut off in Tigray, with airports and roads closed.
The Tigray leader in a letter to the African Union chair, according to The Associated Press, has warned that Ethiopian forces are preparing to launch a large-scale offensive.
