In a statement from the White House on Thursday, presidents Joe Biden and Uhuru Kenyatta are said to have discussed the situation in the horn of Africa region. Of greatest concern is the situation in the Tigray region in Ethiopia where thousands of people are believed to have been killed in three months of fighting – women, and girls subjected to rape and thousands more have sought refuge in neighboring Sudan.
Biden expressed his concern over the lack of access to those affected by humanitarian assistance and called the Ethiopian government to provide humanitarian access to Tigray and those affected by the crisis. He decried human rights abuses carried out in the region against civilians.
Biden pledged to continue working with Kenya in enhancing peace in the horn of Africa region including through the UN Security Council. Kenya began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member at the UN Security Council last month.
The international community has expressed concern over the situation in the Tigray region, the European Union warned this week that the crisis in the Tigray region is “completely out of control militarily, human rights-wise and humanitarian-wise.”
Ethiopia’s Prime minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed launched an offensive against the Tigray people’s liberation Front (TPLF) in November last year following an alleged attack on Ethiopian military camp by TPLF fighters.
On Friday, Amnesty International in a report said Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray state systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the northern city of Axum in November, opening fire in the streets and conducting house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity.
A humanitarian disaster stares Tigray region in the face, warn experts:
