UNITED NATIONS (AP) – An attempt to gain UN Security Council approval for a statement calling for an end to violence in Ethiopia’s controversial Tigray region and for the millions in need of humanitarian aid. was dropped Friday night after objections from India, Russia and especially China, UN diplomats said.
Three council diplomats said Ireland, which drafted the statement, decided not to push for approval after objections from the three countries.
The press statement is said to have been the first from the UN’s most powerful body on the Tigray crisis, entering its fourth month. Fierce fighting is reportedly continuing between Ethiopian and Allied forces and those backing the now fugitive Tigray leaders who once dominated the Ethiopian government, and alarm is growing over the fate of Tigray’s 6 million people. Nobody knows how many thousands of civilians have died.
On Tuesday, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that “an extermination campaign” is underway. He said at least 4.5 million people are in need of assistance and demanded that troops from neighboring Eritrea accused of committing atrocities in Tigray leave Ethiopia.
The proposed statement made no mention of foreign forces or sanctions – two major issues – but called for “an end to the violence in Tigray.”
The draft statement also highlighted “with concern” the humanitarian situation in Tigray, “where millions of people are in need of humanitarian assistance” and the challenge of access for aid workers. It called for “full and early implementation” of the Ethiopian government’s statements of February 26 and March 3 committing to “unfettered access”.
The Council’s diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the consultation was private, said China wanted the statement to cover only the humanitarian situation, without reference to the violence in Tigray. India only wanted a minor change, and Russia reportedly backed its ally China at the last minute, the diplomats said.
Reports of a massacre of hundreds of people by Eritrean soldiers in the holy city of Axum in Tigray are detailed in reports from The Associated Press and then by Amnesty International. The federal government and regional officials in Tigray both believe each other’s governments are illegal after elections disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Human Rights Watch echoed the reports on Friday, saying Eritrean armed forces slaughtered dozens of civilians, including children as young as 13 years old, in November 2020 in the historic town of Axum in Tigray in the historic town of Axum in Tigray. urgently launch an independent investigation into war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Tigray.