When the first American bombs crashed into Baghdad in January 1991, the nature of war fundamentally changed.
Images of the First Gulf War were bounced off satellites and broadcast live to tens of millions of homes around the world.
Everyone saw how Iraq was systematically taken apart blow by blow. Since then, war has become more visible – its crimes ever harder to hide. But one conflict in the far north of Ethiopia has bucked the trend spectacularly, defying the information age.
For the last six months, communications blackouts and appalling access for human rights researchers and journalists alike have shrouded a conflict raging across the Tigray Region in shadows.
Attacks on Health Care Monthly News Brief - March 2021
Format
SHCC Attacks on Health Care
The section aligns with the definition of attacks on health care used by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC).
Africa
Cameroon
01 March 2021: In Kikaikilaki locality, Bui department, Northwest province, following a gun battle, soldiers shot at the Life Abundant Primary Health Care Project, allegedly mistaking it for a separatist hideout. The health facility caught fire, resulting in unknown amounts of damage to the building. Source: Mimi Mefo Info
Democratic Republic of the Congo
13 March 2021: In Kalalangwe village, North Kivu province, alleged ADF militants entered a local clinic and killed three patients, including one woman, with machetes and guns. Source: Actualité
What’s new? War rages on in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – with civilians bearing the brunt of a brutal conflict marked by atrocities. Under international pressure, Addis Ababa has offered concessions on aid access and pledged that Eritrean troops will withdraw. But prospects of a negotiated settlement appear dim.
Why does it matter? An entrenched Tigrayan resistance combined with Ethiopian and Eritrean authorities’ determination to keep Tigray’s fugitive leaders from power mean that the conflict could evolve into a protracted war. That would further devastate Tigray and greatly harm Ethiopia, the linchpin state in the Horn of Africa.
What should be done? With a decisive battlefield win for either side a remote prospect, parties should consider a cessation of hostilities that allows for expanded humanitarian aid access. This practical first step would reduce civilian suffering and ideally pave the way for a return to dialogue down the road.
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