NAIROBI: Ethiopia’s announcement that it has completed its military offensive in its defiant Tigray region does not mean the conflict is finished, the UN refugee chief said on Sunday, adding he is very concerned about the fate of nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees there amid reports that some have been abducted.

If confirmed, such treatment of refugees in camps close to the Tigray border with Eritrea would be major violations of international norms, Filippo Grandi told reporters. It is my strong appeal for the prime minister of Ethiopia for this situation to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Nearly a month of fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigray regional ones has threatened to destabilise Ethiopia, the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa, and its neighbors. The involvement of Eritrea in the conflict has been alleged by refugees and the now-fugitive Tigray leaders but, like much in the sealed-off region, has not been verified.

Meanwhile, in a rare report from inside the Tigray capital of Mekele, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a major hospital in northern Ethiopia, Ayder Referral Hospital, is lacking body bags while some 80pc of its patients have trauma injuries.

The influx of wounded forced the hospital to suspend many other medical services so that limited staff and resources could be devoted to emergency medical care, it said.

Hospitals and health centers in the Tigray region are running dangerously low on supplies to care for the wounded, it added. Food is also running low, the result of the Tigray region being cut off from outside aid for almost a month.

The ICRC also said 1,000 Eritrean refugees have arrived in Mekele from their refugee camps near the Eritrean border, looking for food and other help.

Eritrea, which watchdogs call one of the world’s most repressive countries, has remained almost silent on the allegations by the Tigray regional leaders that it has been involved in the conflict at the invitation of Ethiopia and its Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose government has denied it.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2020