2 years ago

Ethiopia to seize airports in Tigray as UN urges end to hostilities

Addis Ababa says that controlling airports in the restive region would enable the government to expedite humanitarian aid to people in need.

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Ethiopia's government shrugs off a call from the African Union for an immediate and unconditional truce.

The Ethiopian government has said it will take control of airports and federal government facilities from the rebel-held Tigray region, which it accuses of colluding with hostile foreign actors to violate its airspace.

In Monday's statement, Addis Ababa said the move will help safeguard the nation’s territorial integrity. It added that controlling airports would also enable the government to expedite humanitarian aid to people in need.

"These measures are necessitated not only by the repeated attacks by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) but also by its active collusion with these hostile foreign powers," the statement said without mentioning who the foreign powers are.

The government said while pursuing objectives of securing its territorial integrity and sovereignty it is also committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict through the African Union-led peace talks.

Addis Ababa’s statement comes barely a day after officials in its restive rebel-held Tigray region said they are ready to abide by calls from the African Union for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Ethiopia situation 'spiralling out of control'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region on Monday, saying the country was being torn apart by war.

"The situation in Ethiopia is spiralling out of control. Violence and destruction have reached alarming levels," Guterres told reporters.

"Hostilities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia must end now," he said, adding an appeal for the "immediate withdrawal and disengagement" of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.

Guterres said that even before fighting restarted, 13 million people lacked adequate food in the regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar.

He said aid deliveries into Tigray have been halted for seven weeks and assistance to the other two regions disrupted.

"The United Nations is ready to support the African Union in every possible way to end this nightmare for the Ethiopian people," he said.

The nearly two-year-old conflict has unleashed a massive humanitarian crisis in Tigray and other parts of northern Ethiopia, with at least two million people driven from their homes and millions more in need of aid.