Since last week “we are not able to resume the normal activities of the humanitarian air service of the United Nations,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq on Thursday in New York. As long as the Ethiopian army is flying attacks on the regional capital Mekelle, deliveries by air are too dangerous.
Last week, a World Organization aircraft had to turn around due to unannounced attacks in the air. On Thursday, the UN was also “extremely concerned” about the escalation of violence in the north of the East African country. Haq referred, among other things, to reports of the bombing of a residential area in Mekelle, in which at least six people were killed and 22 injured.
A good year after the bloody conflict began with around 400,000 people in the region in the north of the country who are now acutely threatened by starvation, tensions are intensifying again. Last week, the Ethiopian army ushered in a new military offensive against rebels by the Central Committee of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The military conflict began when Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy pushed ahead with the ousting of the TPLF ruling in Tigray.