
Ethiopia: Ministry of Foreign Affairs – On allegations of arbitrary arrest of IDPs in Shire (28.05.2021)



As fighting in pockets of Ethiopia’s Tigray region continues and food supplies dwindle, local farmers not only lack seeds and fertilizer ahead of the planting season but fear runs high.
Endrias Kidane states: “Our children are suffering. Whenever we hear the sound of a corrugated iron we all run thinking its gunshots. We run everywhere to the hills and mountains.”
Weyzero Haregu Teshale adds: “The land cannot grow crops without fertilizer and the fertilizers we had were looted.”
Without the necessary agricultural supplies, the dramatic food shortages already seen in the region will continue to grow and thousands of people may not have enough to eat during the planting season.
To help farmers who can safely access their agricultural land grow cereal crops for the next year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in partnership with the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, is distributing seeds and two varieties of fertilizer to 16,000 families in central zone of Tigray Region.
“The farming communities we recently visited are struggling. They can only afford two meals a day instead of three, and the variety of what they eat has become very poor,” said Amila Suriyarathne, who heads the economic security program for the ICRC in Ethiopia. “The farming season in Tigray starts soon, and things can deteriorate very quickly if farmers can’t plant crops.”
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood in rural Tigray. However, climate and soil in this mountainous area pose significant challenges to farmers, who heavily depend on fertilizer to boost food production. Since armed violence flared up last November, agricultural seeds and subsidized fertilizers on credit from cooperative unions, vital for growing crops in the region, have been unavailable.
At the same time, an estimated one million displaced people have been relying on the support of the host communities who shared their already limited resources and whose food stores are running dangerously low. Many farming communities suffered from looting that further undermined their ability to produce food.
A recent analysis by the ICRC of the food security situation in the region found that families who now can afford to eat two meals a day may soon be forced to eat only one per day. The violence in the region, aside from affecting the agricultural cycle, is also making it difficult for families to find additional work to help them afford more food.

UNFPA is providing medical and psychosocial care to survivors, including a safe space where they can heal.
TIGRAY, Ethiopia, May 27, 2021 – “I was running from place to place without food or shelter. I was in fear all the time… There was no safe place for me until I got to the safe house,” 22-year-old Selam* recounted to UNFPA.
Selam was in an extremely delicate physical and psychosocial state when she arrived. She had been displaced by conflict that continues to rage in parts of the region, and had repeatedly faced harrowing levels of sexual violence.
“Life didn’t have any sense for her anymore,” explained a social worker, who handled Selam’s case.
It is estimated that thousands of women and girls, like Selam, have experienced sexual violence and are in urgent need of supportive services.
“I see women and girls arriving here so traumatized and depressed due to prolonged suffering, distress and horrendous violence that they cry and cannot eat for days,” added the social worker, whose name is being withheld for security reasons.
UNFPA is providing medical and psychosocial care to survivors, including a safe space where they can heal. These services are crucial for survivors, who need not only immediate responses but also longer-term solutions, including security and stability.
Reported sexual violence is just the tip of the iceberg
Nearly six months of fighting, forced displacement and dire living conditions have created a high-risk environment for women and girls. Gender-based violence has become a daily reality for many across Tigray.
Reports of sexual and gender-based violence are numerous, and they likely represent just a fraction of the real incidence. Gender-based violence is largely unreported even under normal circumstances – with only 23 percent of survivors ever seeking assistance, according to a 2016 survey.
“Survivors fear seeking care due to social stigma, further retaliation or limited access to service providers,” said Tesfu Alemu, a UNFPA programme officer. “Silence is a widespread coping mechanism, but survivors must know about the benefits of seeking care and that help is available.”
This care can make all the difference.
“I didn’t know that there were people who can help or do anything, even that women have rights. I found out when I arrived at the safe house,” said Selam.
“They really change here,” the social worker said of survivors at the safe house.
“I have never received such a dignified care in my life,” Selam added.
Need to scale up
As the conflict drags on, UNFPA estimates that tens of thousands of people may end up requiring medical services to address sexual and gender-based violence in Tigray and the neighbouring conflict-affected regions of Amhara and Afar. Yet only 29 per cent of health facilities in Tigray are partially available to provide clinical management of rape; none are fully available.
And while an estimated 1 in 5 people affected by conflict experience a mental health condition, according to World Health Organization researchers, the availability of mental health and psychosocial support is far below the current needs.
“The long-standing impact of the crisis in Tigray on women and girls, and the disruption of systems and services they normally rely on, underscores the acute needs for comprehensive assistance for sexual and gender-based violence, including mental and psychosocial first aid,” said Diana Garde, UNFPA’s humanitarian coordinator.
UNFPA is currently scaling up its support to safe houses, which not only provide clinical management of rape and psychosocial counselling, but also connect women to other sexual and reproductive health services. UNFPA is also expanding the availability of one-stop centres – which provide a wide range of care – and women’s and girls’ safe spaces across the conflict-affected regions. UNFPA is also providing medical supplies and equipment to restore health system services.
UNFPA currently requires at least $12 million to provide this life-saving support, of which less than 40 per cent has been funded.
As for Selam, she says she is determined to move forward. She has found hope and purpose, she said, in part because of the inner strength she summoned while at the safe house.
“When I leave this house, I would like to train and help other women like me in my community,” she said.

Well, it is about that time. The soon selection is upon us and we know the drill. Addis Ababa is ready for a succession and continue to leverage on false hope and liberation. Well, who knew this would happen and that an unelected Prime Minister would unleash this terror? However, here we are, and they are acting high and mighty.
Still, some facts remain. The ones starving and fleeing military operations in Tigray will not vote. Neither will the refugees in Sudan. The ones deceased or behind bars because of the conflict will not participate either.
The same can be said across the Republic. As the state is violating people’s rights on the regular. The state is going after dissidents and whoever associates with others than the anointed ones. The Prosperity Party will have its candidates in the House of Federation and the Prime Minister will have his day. However, he will not honour the pledge of a free and fair election. Because, his enemies are either dead or behind bars. That is just the tragic enterprise of this whole affair.
We know and read the reports from across the republic. The videos of the horrific efforts made by the authorities, the army and the police. The massacres, the murders and the extra judicial killings is happening in Tigray, Afar, Ogaden and Oromia. These lives will not be forgotten and their souls will haunt the offices of the ruling regime.
The Medemer Terror will be term of this era. The violence, the atrocities and significant use of force on civilians. The use of blatant disregard to assemble, to operate and be opposition parties. The lack of freedom, liberty and justice, if one party and one man can reign supreme. That is what is the unique and tragic about this time.
The election or (s)election to be fair to the dramatic efforts made by the state. Will not legitimize or give the credibility Prime Minister Ahmed Ali Abiy is seeking. To the contrary it will invalidate his efforts and his whole first term in office. Which is ironic and a missed opportunity.
The Prime Minister had the whole world by the balls, but squashed that over petty foes and the ill-advised attacks on enemies. Instead of acting mature and taking things into account. He instead ordered the arms, the mechanical warfare and the missiles on his own. The PM rather destroy his own republic. Just so everyone can “worship” his name. That’s the of warlord and not a man of peace.
The Prosperity Party works for one sole mission and that’s to become the one-party state. To violate and deplete everyone in its way. That’s why the regions best candidates and the ones who isn’t hand-picked by PP is behind bars or dead. The other parties cannot organize or even try to campaign. While the PP is all over the place and the armed forces are violating people on the regular. Schools are prisons, hospitals raided and nothing is left behind. I doubt the ones who is starving, struggling to eat as the fields are left behind. Their villages and homes burned. The streets are left empty and there is nowhere to seek shelter or for safety. They will not come for you or support your endeavours.
Even crying elders in the streets are beaten by armed personnel, as they are supposed to accept fellow brothers and sisters are killed. That’s the state under Abiy and he thinks this is a way to rule.
Abiy will live by the gun and die by the gun. The way he enters his reign is the way he will go out as well. The dead will not vote for you, the ones raped will not vote for you and the ones behind bars will not support you.
There are so many people scorn, so many people harmed, and the steady retribution of the state is only finding new victims. Where nobody is untouched, and nobody should feel safe. At any given moment, the state can find a reason to target you and your kin. That’s what it does. Especially, if you do side with the dissidents, the opposition or anyone who opposes the “Mad King”. Peace.










