The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | UNHCR
UNOG Bi-Weekly Press Briefing Tigray- Eritrea Refugees’ Plight 21 January 2022
Tigray: Eritrean refugees ‘scared and struggling to eat’ amid aid obstacles
For the first time in three weeks, aid teams have reached refugee camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, only to find the Eritreans living there “scared and struggling to get enough to eat”, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.
More than 25,000 refugees live in in Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in Tigray, where UNHCR has urged all parties to the conflict to guarantee safe passage, so that they can be relocated to neighbouring Amara region.
“After three weeks with no access due to the security situation, UNHCR staff members managed to reach Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this week for the first time since the recent air strikes in and near the camps,” said Boris Cheshirkov, UNHCR spokesperson. “Our team found refugees scared and struggling to get enough to eat, lacking medicine and with little or no access to clean water.”
The work of humanitarians has been hindered by a lack of fuel, preventing clean water from being pumped in or trucked to the camps. This has left refugees with no option but to collect water from streams that are rapidly drying up, leaving them vulnerable to water-borne diseases.
“Despite concerted efforts, the complete inability to move supplies into the region means
that extreme hunger is an increasing concern,” Mr Cheshirkov noted, adding that more than 20 people had reportedly died in the last six weeks alone, amid deteriorating conditions and in particular a lack of medicine.
“With food running out in the camp and no additional stocks available for distribution, refugees tell us they have resorted to selling their clothes and few belongings to try to get food,” the UNHCR official said, before warning that more refugees will die, “if food, medicine, fuel and other supplies cannot be immediately brought in, and if we continue to be unable to relocate refugees out of harm's way”.
The development is the latest development in the armed conflict in Tigray which began on 3 November 2020 between Ethiopian national forces, Eritrean troops, Amhara forces and other militias on one side, and forces loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation front on the other.
Echoing the UN-wide call for all parties in Ethiopia to protect civilians and to respect everyone’s
human rights and fundamental freedoms, Mr. Cheshirkov insisted that refugees “must not be held hostage” in the conflict.
“The desperate situation in these camps is a stark example of the impact of the lack of access and supplies affecting millions of displaced persons and other civilians throughout the region,” he added.
The development comes as UN aid coordination office, OCHA, warned that food distribution in Tigray is at its “all-time lowest”.
Food stocks and fuel are almost entirely exhausted, meaning that only about 10,000 people received assistance between 6 and 12 January – a drop in the ocean compared to the estimated 9.4 million who require humanitarian food assistance in Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, which is an increase of 2.7 million from four months ago.
ends
STORY: Tigray: Eritrean Refugees’ Plight - UNHCR
TRT: 01 min 40s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 21 JANUARY 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, United Nations Palace of Nations, Geneva. UN flag flying.
- Wide shot, press room UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Cheshirkov, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “After three weeks with no access due to the security situation, UNHCR staff members managed to reach Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this week for the first time since the recent air strikes in and near the camps.”
- Medium-wide shot, large TV screen showing speaker, podium speakers to rear.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Cheshirkov, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Our team found refugees scared and struggling to get enough to eat, lacking medicine and with little or no access to clean water.”
- Wide shot, podium speakers seated with TV screens on either side.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Cheshirkov, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Despite concerted efforts, the complete inability to move supplies into the region means that extreme hunger is an increasing concern.”
- Medium shot, photographer taking photos.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Cheshirkov, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The desperate situation in these camps is a stark example of the impact of the lack of access and supplies affecting millions of displaced people and other civilians throughout the region.”
- Medium shot, masked participant looking at laptop, in profile.
- SOUNDBITE (English): Boris Cheshirkov, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “If food, medicine, fuel and other supplies cannot be immediately brought in, and if we continue to be unable to relocate refugees out of harm's way to where we can provide them with life-saving assistance, more refugees will die.”
- Medium shot, masked participant looking towards podium.
- Close-up, showing hand and pen taking notes on notepad.
- Wide shot, press room UN Geneva, with participants and podium speakers to rear.
- Medium shot, podium speakers taking notes during the briefing.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.