Ethiopia assumes no access to aid workers in Tigray
Ethiopian Deputy Foreign Minister Redwan Hussein in 2014 (Illustrative image).
AFP - SOLAN GEMECHU
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
It has been 10 days since an agreement was signed with the United Nations for aid workers to access Tigray, which faces many shortages, but nothing has yet materialized.
On Sunday, a UN team was arrested after coming under fire.
A serious gesture, fully assumed by the government in Addis Ababa, which refuses to give full access to the region.
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With our correspondent in Addis Ababa,
Noé Hoché-Bodin
After the incident this weekend, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Redwan Hussein, repeats that in Tigray, it is the government which decides and the UN which executes.
“
When we signed
the humanitarian agreement
, we thought the United Nations would work together,”
says Redwan Hussein.
And that it would be us, the government, who would make the decisions.
We do not allow partners to go it alone or decide alone.
Open access does not exist here.
"
Still fighting in Tigray
He recognizes at the same time that the fighting continues, and this despite the announcement of the final victory by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ten days ago: "
We are clearly saying that indeed there are special Tigray forces and militias who did not lay down their arms.
They went into hiding in the bush and they are still able to fight.
"
Demands are pouring in again and again to open Tigray to observers to investigate possible war crimes.
This is no according to the authorities.
“
We will accept independent investigations if and only if we believe we are not up to the task.
Ethiopia does not need a babysitter.
The first entity to which we are accountable is the Ethiopian people.
Here, it is not a colony, neither in the past nor today.
"
According to Redwan Hussein, the end of operations and the arrest of TPLF cadres could still take weeks.
►Also read: Conflict in Ethiopia: international diplomacy struggling
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