What’s new? After weeks of fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, federal troops removed the regional government and declared victory. Yet thousands have died, hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation and the conflict continues. Addis Ababa has established an interim administration, but ousted Tigrayan politicians say they will fight back.
Why did it happen? Relations between Addis Ababa and Mekelle tanked after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and Tigray’s leaders lost federal power. Tensions spiked when Tigray defied central authority by holding regional elections in September, culminating when Tigrayan forces captured the national military command in the region, triggering federal intervention.
Conflict compounded by Covid-19 and climate change pushes millions in Tigray to the brink - Oxfam
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The conflict in Tigray compounded by climate-fuelled locust infestations and coronavirus has left millions of people in desperate need of humanitarian aid yet access to those affected continues to be restricted, warned Oxfam today.
Recent Oxfam assessments in South and West Tigray, as well as neighbouring North Amhara, found that communities were already struggling to cope before the conflict erupted in November 2020.
Gezahegn Kebede Gebrehana, Oxfam’s Country Director in Ethiopia said:
“The three lethal Cs - conflict, coronavirus and climate change - have pushed millions of Ethiopians in Tigray to the brink. Even before the conflict, people had lost up to half their crops due to climate-fuelled plagues of locusts and they were struggling due to the devastating health and economic impacts of coronavirus. The conflict erupted in the middle of the harvest season, halting at