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Humanitarian Crisis Grips Ethiopia's Restive Tigray Region

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA - United Nations aid agencies report Ethiopia's northern Tigray
   region is in a worsening humanitarian crisis, as fighting intensifies
   and thousands continue to flee to neighboring countries.

   Protection of Ethiopian civilians and Eritrean refugees is a major
   concern, with human rights monitors warning the weeklong fighting
   between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigray regional security forces
   could spin out of control.
   The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says
   humanitarian aid to more than 2 million people in the region has been
   disrupted. It says security concerns are preventing food, health
   supplies and other relief from being delivered.
   Babar Baloch, a spokesman for UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, says the
   safety of tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees who are living in
   camps near the conflict zone is at risk.
   "Meanwhile, services for 96,000 Eritrean refugees inside Tigray have
   been seriously disrupted, with reports of growing numbers of Ethiopians
   themselves becoming displaced internally," Baloch said.

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