‘Finish Them Off’: Aid Workers, Found on Battlefield, Executed by Soldiers. As the fight intensified in northern Ethiopia in June last year, three aid workers from Doctors Without Borders jumped into their four-wheel drive and raced across the battle-scarred landscape.
Three employees of Doctors Without Borders set out to rescue the wounded in a war zone in northern Ethiopia. Their fate shows the treacherous path for many aid workers in conflict zones.
Beside them lay the leftovers of lives cut short: family photographs, school diplomas, Ethiopian flags.
What happened here in mid-June was just one battle in an eight-month war between Ethiopia’s military and rebellious forces in the northern region of Tigray.
But, in a conflict largely waged far from the world’s cameras, it sheds light on a key turning point.
In June, Tigrayan fighters regained the regional capital Mekelle, three hours’ drive to the east, in a major setback for the central government. On the same day, the city was retaken, Addis Ababa declared a unilateral ceasefire.
Fighting first broke out in Tigray in November when the government accused the TPLF of attacking military bases across the region – an accusation the group denied.
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