USAID’s mission director in Ethiopia said on Tuesday that rebel forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region in recent weeks looted warehouses belonging to the humanitarian agency in the Amhara region.
Last November, conflict started in the mountainous region between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which controls the region. The conflict has claimed the lives of thousands and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
After retaking control of most of Tigray in early July, Tigrayan forces pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, displacing several hundred thousand more people from their homes.
Mission director Sean Jones told state broadcaster EBC in a televised interview that “we do have proof that several of our warehouses have been looted and completely emptied in the areas, particularly in Amhara, where TPLF soldiers have gone into.”
Adding that the TPLF has been very opportunistic. Representatives for the TPLF and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
USAID estimates at least 900,000 people in Tigray are in famine conditions, while five million others are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
The Tigrayan forces and the federal government have repeatedly traded accusations of hindering the flow of aid.