Oct. 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ethiopian Red Cross Society (SCRE) has “unmitigatedly condemned” the murder of an ambulance driver and several patients at the hands of armed groups in the Ethiopian region of Amhara, one of the epicenters of the war that confronts the Government and the rebels of Tigray, in the north of the country.
The Red Cross does not report the date of the event or how many patients would have been killed. It has, however, identified the deceased driver as Mengist Minyil, a driver for the North Gonder division, who provided humanitarian services in West Dembiya for Adi Remets hospital.
According to the Red Cross, at the time of his death he was transporting wounded patients from Adwa, in Tigray, bordering Amhara.
Red Cross denounces the atrocious situation in which humanitarian workers who try to survive in the conflict live. Since the outbreak of the war, in November 2020, at least 27 aid workers have died, the penultimate of them in an attack by the Ethiopian Army in Shire, at the beginning of the month.
In September of last year, the Red Cross also recalls, at least 11 aid workers from the Support Society for Tigray, based in the troubled state, were killed in an attack by armed men.
Mengist’s lifeless body was transferred to his hometown of Belessa on Friday. The 40-year-old aid worker had two daughters, and the organization describes him as a “martyr for humanity, whose extraordinary humanitarian actions will forever be reflected in the memory of the association.”
Finally, the Ethiopian Red Cross calls on all armed groups to “guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers who try to carry out their work in the country under the banner of neutrality and non-discrimination,” according to the statement published at the last minute. Friday on his Facebook page.
The conflict in Tigray broke out after an attack by the TPLF against the Army’s main base, located in Mekelle, after which the Ethiopian 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 aid deliveries and all have been accused by international NGOs of committing atrocities during the conflict.
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.
