ADDIS ABABA (Somaliguardian) – More than 50,000 civilians have been killed in the war raging in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, three regional opposition parties said on Tuesday as aid agencies warn against humanitarian disaster as hunger haunts the northern Ethiopian region.
The three political parties urged the international community to intervene in the dire situation before a “humanitarian disaster of biblical proportion will become a gruesome reality.”
The statement issued by the Tigray Independence Party, the National Congress of Great Tigray and Salsay Weyane, all registered in the conflict-torn northern Ethiopian region, called on the international community to press for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces.
As every day reports of civilians killed in Tigray make headlines in the region, the three parties demanded an independent investigation into the conflict. The parties also urged the Ethiopian government to provide unfettered humanitarian and media access to “cover what is happening in the region.”
“Towns and villages have been demolished by blind artillery shelling,” the parties said.
“Our health and educational facilities have been looted and destroyed and, to the surprise of any sane mind, our religious institutions have also been attacked and their sacred possessions plundered.”
The United Nations confirmed that as many as 20,000 refugees are missing after two camps in Tigray were destroyed following the allied Ethiopian and Eritrean military offensive on the region on November last year.
The refugees, most of whom are from neighboring Eritrea, fled from the Hitsats and Shimelba camps that were allegedly destroyed by the Eritrean forces fighting Tigray rebels in the region.
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