Bloodbath warning as Ethiopia offensive escalates

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Diplomats are warning of a civilian bloodbath in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray if rebels are pushed out of towns by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops.

Tigray residents say food and medical supplies are running out as a massive offensive on the region intensifies.

Cities are being carpet bombed, says Tedros Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization chief, who is from Tigray.

Civilians are being killed and those wounded cannot be saved because of a siege, he says.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bloodbath-warning-as-ethiopia-offensive-escalates/ar-AA131DwP

[Backseat Driver]

1. Wow, any USA official position except for a general okay on NGO aid?

Reading the wiki (Haile Selassie I era (1916–1974...) it seems a real mess of pressing 20th century ideologies pre- and post WWs, not least of which was/is both Mussolini's fascist Italian and Russian/Soviet/Putin's (yeah, all roads lead to...) oligarchical policies in this part of the African continent. What's the chance that long-game playing China stands in the mix of world powers as well as Christofascists and fossil-fuel barons extending their influence over military might and resources here now? Damn, I know we can't always serve as the world's police; however, with our support of Ukraine, I really had not been paying attention to this latest, dare I say, skirmish, molehill to mountainous, all out war and possible starvational genocide - is it racsist, similar to anti-semetic Nazism, willingness to wait out an African continental reduction of several million in the global population - gad, now something else to trigger a flare of SMH...

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. From the article:

Camps for the millions of people displaced by the fighting are also coming under attack, according to Samantha Power, the head of the US's development agency.

If Ethiopian and Eritrea troops took control of them during the current offensive there was "significant risk of further assaults and killings being perpetrated against civilians", the US Aid chief said.

"The staggering human cost of this conflict should shock the world's conscience," she added.

Link to tweet

The potential for further widespread atrocities in Northern Ethiopia is alarming.

The staggering human cost of this conflict should shock the world's conscience—and the risk of additional atrocities & loss of life is intensifying, particularly around Shire in the Tigray region.

Recent indiscriminate attacks by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and Eritrean Defense Forces in Shire, and reports that Eritrean forces may soon take control of civilian population centers, are gravely concerning.

To protect civilians, this offensive must stop.

The conflict has displaced millions of people, and camps for displaced Ethiopians have also fallen under attack. If the ENDF and EDF take control of these camps during this offensive, there is significant risk of further assaults and killings being perpetrated against civilians.

With as many as one million people teetering on the edge of famine, we urge all parties—the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Tigray Defense Forces—to agree to a ceasefire, and call for safe and unhindered humanitarian access and withdrawal of the EDF from Ethiopia.