Non-international armed conflict (2020 – )
Estimated starvation-related casualties: between 150,000 and 200,000 to 13 March 2022
Estimated number persons in need of humanitarian assistance: 9,4 million across Amhara, Afar and Tigray as of May 2022
Violence erupted in Tigray, a region in north-west Ethiopia, around 4 November 2020, when the Ethiopian Government, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, ordered the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) to take action against Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in apparent response to attacks on the ENDF’s Northern Command base in Tigray. During the resultant conflict, an armed resistance group was formed, named the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF), consisting of TPLF leaders and commanded by former high-ranking ENDF officers.
For months following the commencement of the conflict, both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments denied that the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) were present in Tigray, despite growing evidence and numerous reports by residents, rights groups and humanitarian aid workers On 16 April 2021, Eritrea officially acknowledged to the UN Security Council that its armed forces were party to the conflict occurring in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
The conflict that began in Tigray and subsequently expanded into neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, has been characterised by serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and violations and abuses of human rights law (IHRL) committed by all parties to the conflict, with detrimental consequences for civilians.
Food insecurity during the conflict
Despite that Ethiopia has historically been a food insecure country, the majority of the population in Tigray was largely considered to be food secure under the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system at the start of the current conflict. Most of Tigray had minimal or no food insecurity (Phase 1 – 1,956,221 people), with some areas stressed (Phase 2 – 1,034,750 people). Approximately 10% of the analysed population in Tigray was in crisis (Phase 3 – 346,946 people), while 2% was in emergency (Phase 4 – 82,624 people). According to Alex de Waal, a foremost expert on famine and the Horn of Africa, the past five years of analyses show how Tigray often has been classified as a more food secure region in comparison to others in Ethiopia.
Since November 2020, the situation in Tigray has deteriorated dramatically. The IPC assessment for May to June 2021 reported that over 350,000 people faced catastrophic famine conditions (Phase 5) in Tigray and the neighbouring areas of Amhara and Afar. An additional 5.5 million people (61% of the population) faced acute food insecurity, with 3.1 million people in crisis (Phase 3) and 2.1 million people in emergency (Phase 4). The severe situation was mainly attributed to the conflict and related displacement, restrictions on movement, little or no humanitarian access, loss of harvest and livelihood assets. A January 2022 World Food Programme (WFP) food security assessment estimated that 83% of the population was food insecure and 2 million people in Tigray (37%) were severely food insecure (IPC Phase 4 and 5). According to OCHA, as of May 2022, 9,4 million people across the regions of Amhara, Afar and Tigray are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Evidence of starvation crimes
The UN and other international bodies, NGOs, and media outlets have consistently reported on the targeting of OIS by the warring parties—namely the ENDF, EDF, TPLF/TDF, and the Amhara forces. Contemporaneously, parties to the conflict, and in particular the Ethiopian Government, have completely blocked the passage of humanitarian aid, cutting off the population from essential food and water supplies necessary to keep them alive. These reports indicate that the widespread commission of conflict-related sexual violence by parties to the conflict against women and girls have further exacerbated pre-existing food security vulnerabilities by adversely affecting their access to food and other basic commodities necessary for their survival.
“… numerous reports indicate that the parties to the conflict have engaged in direct or indiscriminate attacks on objects indispensable to survival… including on agriculture and foodstuffs, medical facilities, the water supply, and critical infrastructure.”
Following the outbreak of the conflict, numerous reports indicate that parties to the conflict have engaged in direct or indiscriminate attacks on objects indispensable to survival (OIS), including on agriculture and foodstuffs, medical facilities, the water supply, and critical infrastructure. The destruction of these OIS, in particular, has long-term implications for food security and resilience. As noted by De Waal: “I have been working on war, mass atrocity and famine in Africa for close to forty years. Never in my professional life have I documented destruction of what is necessary to sustain life in a manner as relentless and systematic as we are seeing in Tigray today.”
Despite the Ethiopian government’s insistence that it has provided unfettered access to the passage of humanitarian aid, with limitations imposed only to protect aid workers, consistent field reports, including by OCHA, indicate that the Ethiopian government has deliberately denied humanitarian access to the civilian population. Between November 2020 and October 2021, OCHA received over 800 reports of humanitarian access incidents relating to the restriction of movement of organizations, personnel, or goods, violence against aid workers and restrictions on people’s access to aid in Tigray. Between mid-December 2021 and up to the end of March 2022, no relief supplies entered Tigray by land.
Impunity for starvation crimes
Since the outbreak of hostilities in November 2020, the US has imposed sanctions under different sanctions regimes to exert pressure on the parties to the conflict in Ethiopia. These sanctions have mainly targeted Ethiopian and Eritrean actors, and have highlighted the widespread humanitarian crisis gravely affecting the civilian population, the denial and obstruction of humanitarian assistance, and other violations of IHL and violations and abuses of IHRL.
“… to date there have been no significant advances to hold permeators accountable for starvation crimes …”
On 10 March 2021, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) established a joint investigation which made several findings relating to starvation, namely that the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) has looted objects indispensable to survival, including crops and livestock, that access restrictions by the the EDF and Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) have impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid, and that Tigrayan forces have attacked the farms of non-Tigrayans. On 17 December 2021, the Human Rights Council established an International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia to build upon and complement the work done by the joint investigation.
Nevertheless, to date there have been no significant advances to hold perpetrators accountable for starvation crimes alleged to be committed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Read more on the use of starvation by warring parties in Tigray in GRC’s Starvation Accountability Website, here and here.
