Red Cross evacuates 161 people from Ethiopia’s Tigray region

The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed that it moved 161 people out of conflict-affected Tigray on 28 September, including African Union monitors, as northern Ethiopia faces renewed fighting.

In a statement published on 29 September, the ICRC said the group travelled from Mekelle to Semera in the neighbouring Afar region. Staff accompanied the evacuees in buses carrying the Red Cross emblem.

Those moved included Ethiopian federal police personnel and their families, Ethiopian Airlines employees and their families, aviation security personnel and members of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society. The ICRC said the operation was requested and approved by all the authorities concerned, with the organisation acting as a neutral intermediary.

The development has a direct diplomatic connection to South Africa. Pretoria hosted the African Union-led negotiations between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front that concluded with a cessation-of-hostilities agreement on 2 November 2022. Former South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was a member of the mediation panel.

That agreement remains the framework the United Nations wants the parties to use to resume negotiations. In a 23 September statement, the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson expressed concern about worsening fighting, the occupation of airports at Mekelle, Axum and Shire, and hostilities spreading into surrounding areas.

The UN appealed for restraint, protection of civilians and unhindered humanitarian access. It also supported African Union efforts, including those of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, to bring the parties back to talks.

The ICRC said it would remain in contact with the parties and available for further operations involving vulnerable people where agreement could be secured. Its statement did not announce another evacuation date or give a timetable for further transfers.

Sources: International Committee of the Red Cross; United Nations in Ethiopia; African Union Peace and Security Department; Reuters / Sight Magazine.