Plea for humanitarian access as Tigray again descends into war

The war in the region in 2020-22 killed an estimated 600,000 people and displaced millions of others. It ended with a peace agreement signed in South Africa, which mandated a ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to the region.

The Pope made a “heartfelt plea” for warring parties in Tigray “to choose the path of dialogue” after fighting between rebels and Ethiopian government forces.

Church leaders in Tigray had already appealed for peace after hostilities broke out in recent weeks, including an attack on a humanitarian convoy.

“Armed conflict never solves problems but only worsens them, leaving in its wake a trail of death, destruction, and resentment,” Pope Leo said, after his general audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday.

“Only honest engagement can lay the foundations for lasting peace. It is my fervent hope that the international community will offer its generous and timely contribution, to ensuring that all humanitarian aid be provided to those in need.”

Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin, who leads the Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Tigray, made an appeal last week for unhindered humanitarian access to local communities, repeating a message he first issued on 20 September after the first signs of fighting.

The crisis escalated around the Demera, Ethiopia’s annual festival on 26 September and which celebrates the finding of the True Cross by St Helena in the fourth century. Known as the Maskel – “the Cross” in Amharic – the festival is one of the country’s most important celebrations and unites Ethiopians across cultural, social and geographic lines.

While thousands poured into the Maskel Square in the capital Addis Ababa, fighting intensified in Tigray. Last week the rebel Tigray People Liberation Force (TPLF) captured three airports and pushed deep into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.

The TPLF says it is fighting a defensive war after the Ethiopian army attacked its forces with drones. The government forces have since launched a counterattack.

The war in the region in 2020-22 killed an estimated 600,000 people and displaced millions of others. It ended with a peace agreement signed in South Africa, which mandated a ceasefire, disarmament of the TPLF and unhindered humanitarian access to the region.

However, the TPLF has since allied with six other armed groups, including the Oromo Liberation Front and Amhara Fano National Movement, to form the Ethiopian Peoples’ Alliance for Survival, with a declared agenda to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali’s government.

On 20 September, Bishop Medhin said a drone attacked a lorry contracted by the church to ferry humanitarian assistance belonging to the Eparchy of Adigrat. The driver and a young girl were injured in the strike.

The lorry was ferrying large quantities of white maize and vegetable oil provided by the Catholic Relief Services. The food was to be delivered to a camp in Sheraro town, where over 56,000 people depend entirely on humanitarian aid.

According to the bishop destruction of the relief consignment deprived thousands of people, including women and children, of daily sustenance at a very critical time of distress.

The United States also condemned the drone strike. “Parties should immediately engage in dialogue to resolve political differences peacefully,” said a statement from the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs.

Fighting in Tigray means governments across the Horn of Africa are at war, with the Somalian government fighting al-Shabaab militants while Sudan is riven by a civil war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, and the South Sudan army is also involved in clashes with armed factions.

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