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Ethiopia's Tigray Conflict Strips Children of Protection, Education,
Nutrition, UNICEF Says

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The U.N. children's fund warns the conflict in
   Ethiopia's northern Tigray province is stripping tens of thousands of
   children of their rights, plunging them into a protection crisis that
   is causing them unimaginable long-lasting harm.

   UNICEF spokesman James Elder has just returned from a visit to
   Ethiopia's Tigray. He says his agency's fears for the welfare of
   children expressed at the onset of the conflict nearly six months ago
   now are being realized.

   Elder saidchildren are suffering from a protection crisis as the
   incidence of rape and gender-based violence grows. Since the start of
   the year, he saidjust one UNICEF supported center has been reporting an
   average of three cases of gender-based violence every day. Those are
   the reported cases, he says, adding the true number is certainly
   higher.

   "The personal stories I received from children who had been raped or
   testimonies of women who were victims of sexual violence were harrowing
   and quite cruel'¦Yes, I heard dramatic stories of children as young as
   14. I heard reports of gang rapes, quite, quite bewildering," he said.

   Elder saidauthorities must publicly denounce the attacks and hold the
   perpetrators accountable. He saidUNICEF is providing medical and
   psychosocial support to the survivors of sexual assault.

   He saidchildren caught in the conflict also are suffering from
   education and nutritional emergencies. He said1.4 million children have
   not been in school for more than a year. Of the many children he
   encountered on his visit to Tigray, Elder said the story of 16-year-old
   Merhawit remains seared in his mind.

   "She had walked 300 kilometers with her baby brother on her back from
   the west of the country. I mean pretty intense fighting. That was 300
   kilometers and in broken flip flops. Those stories abound. She was a
   star in physics and now she is searching for food and has not seen a
   classroom in a year," he said.

   Last November, fighters from the Tigray People's Liberation Front
   (TPLF) attacked army bases in the region, according to the federal
   government. The attack, Ethiopia's prime minister said, prompted his
   government to launch a military offensive to push the group out.
   FILE - An Ethiopian woman who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray
   region, nurses her newly born children inside a clinic in the Hamdayat
   camp in eastern Kassala state, Sudan, Dec. 15, 2020.

   The conflict has interrupted harvesting activities, resulting in lost
   income and livelihoods. And now, because of the fighting, farmers
   cannot access their land to plant their crop, resulting in severe food
   shortages.

   Elder saidthat is causing a spike in malnutrition, with an increasing
   number of acutely malnourished children requiring life-saving
   treatment.

   He saidUNICEF requires greater international support to meet the many
   protection, education and nutritional needs of Tigray's children and
   women. He notes less than half of UNICEF's $47.6 million appeal for
   Tigray is funded.

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