The UN sends 29 million euros in humanitarian aid for the conflict in Tigray

The decision of the United Nations to release a total of EUR 29 million in humanitarian aid to Tigray, a state in northern Ethiopia, was made public on Thursday 17 December. This aid is mainly intended for civilians living in the region, but also for refugees who have fled to Sudan, a country bordering Tigray.

This aid is intended to cover the conflict that has taken place in northern Ethiopia in the last month, between the Ethiopian government and the People's Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), which used to govern the region.

On 4 November armed confrontation broke out between the two sides and has already left 2.3 million children homeless and without access to humanitarian aid. But it has also left over 50,000 refugees on Sudanese soil. These figures are difficult to measure as the Ethiopian government, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has since cut off telecommunications and severely restricted the entry of journalists into the region.

This is how the aid that the UN will be allocating to the region comes about, after reaching an agreement with the Ethiopian government on 2 December last to ensure that the aid the organisation will allocate reaches Tigray safely and without any restrictions.

The main part of the aid will go to the region of Tigray, a total of 20 million euros, from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the UN Humanitarian Fund. The rest will go to the thousands of refugees in Sudan. Almost EUR 9 million from the same UN funds.

Since 1991 the Ethiopian government has been in the hands of the Tigray ethnic group. This changed in 2018, when the country's majority ethnic group took power. Coming from the Oromia region, and after various protests since 2015, they managed to get the Tigrayan president to resign and this enabled the current prime minister Ahmed to become president of the country.

Various clashes took place between the Tigray region and the central government, but everything exploded in the last federal elections. The country's parliamentary and regional elections were due to be held in August. However, it was decided to delay them until the COVID-19 pandemic was under control.

Thus, on 10 June the upper house of parliament agreed to extend all public posts until the elections, which would be held between nine months and a year after COVID-19 was no longer considered a threat.

The PFLT denounced that Ahmed wanted to hold on to power and decided to continue with the regional elections in Tigray. These elections were not validated by Ahmed's central government, and for the Tigray government, any "decision to suspend or put any other obstacle to the elections in Tigray, will be a declaration of war", according to Europa Press.

Thus, things became more tense when the Ethiopian government blamed the People's Front for the Liberation of Tigray for being responsible for the assault on a federal military base near Mekele, the regional capital. This set the precedent for a military offensive against Tigray.

The consequences of the conflict are slowly coming to light and not only the UN is willing to send humanitarian aid. The European Union (EU) had planned to send 90 million euros but it has finally been decided to postpone delivery until Ethiopia meets the conditions set by the EU, which include the re-establishment of communications in the Tigray region. This is a widespread concern which is reflected in the declarations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who states that serious abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms are being committed.