The US says Ethiopian forces are committing ethnic cleansing in the country's northern Tigray region, prompting a furious response from the government. The UN says it has evidence of serious human rights violations.
The decision comes amid alarm over growing hunger among Tigray's 6 million population. Reports of a massacre in the historic town of Axum have also surfaced.
Anger and collective trauma scar Ethiopia s Tigray region
The conflict in Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia, has mostly been unfolding under a media blackout since early November. Thousands of civilians have likely died as a result of the crisis.
The humanitarian crisis in Mekela, the Tigray capital, is worsening
They were sobbing silently, waiting for their turn at the end of a dark corridor a dozen petrified women, seeking medical check-ups in Adigrat s hospital after having been raped. None of them was willing to utter more than a few words.
Every day, Eritrean soldiers come to take medical equipment. Patients and doctors are terrified. They come here every day, even two times per day, explained a general practitioner, who wished to remain anonymous. Yesterday, they stole a stretcher. When they come, not only the patients, but also the staff run away. The treatments get interrupted.