Gil was also unable to meet with members of the Government to address the murder of three NGO workers in 2021
July 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Spain, Paula Gil, stated this Tuesday that she did not receive permission from the authorities to visit the Tigray region (north) during a six-day visit to the country coinciding with the anniversary of the murder of three NGO workers in this region, mired in conflict since November 2020.
Gil pointed out that he concluded his six-day visit to Ethiopia “with great disappointment” and added that a year after the murder of three colleagues in the Tigray region, on July 24, 2021, he hoped to meet with the mourning families and ” continue discussions with the Ethiopian federal government on the case.
“Instead, the authorities did not grant me permission to visit Tigray, which meant that I could not pay tribute to the families of Tedros and Yohannes, our two Ethiopian colleagues who were brutally murdered, or inform the families about the progress of the review. internal MSF of the incident,” he explained.
Thus, he stressed that he was unable to meet with representatives of the Ethiopian Government “to continue the discussion on his investigation into the murder of our three comrades, despite the requests sent to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Defense.”
“We are distressed because, after more than a year of engagement with the Ethiopian authorities, we still do not have credible answers about what happened to our colleagues that day,” Gil said, according to a statement published by MSF through its page. Web.
In this sense, he stressed that he hoped his visit “would be a decisive step” in these efforts and added that “it is time to reflect on the next steps”. “We will continue to seek accountability for the murder of our colleagues using all possible means and avenues,” she argued.
“After 20 months of conflict, now coupled with increased food insecurity and malnutrition, I am deeply concerned about the dire situation faced by populations without access to vital medical services,” Gil said.
On June 24, MSF commemorated the murders of three of its colleagues, including a Spanish humanitarian worker, in Tigray and expressed its sadness and outrage at the lack of responses to this incident, for which no group has taken responsibility.
The conflict in Ethiopia erupted after an attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) against the Army’s main base, located in the capital of Tigray, Mekelle, after which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group after months of political and administrative tensions. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.
The TPLF has accused Abiy of stirring up tensions since he came to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within the ethnically based coalition that had governed Ethiopia since 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, seeing them as an attempt to undermine his influence.
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