USAID Chief Urges Anti-Government Troops Near Tigray to Withdraw

(Bloomberg) -- The head of the U.S Agency for International Development called on anti-government forces to withdraw from two regions bordering Ethiopia’s war-ravaged Tigray region.

Samantha Power’s comments in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, came after the State Department reinforced its calls for Tigray forces, which have been embroiled in a nine-month conflict with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to “withdraw its associated military forces immediately from the Amhara and Afar regions.”

The State Department also condemned the Amhara regional government’s presence in Western Tigray, which it forcibly annexed during the course of the civil war.

“There is no a military solution for an internal matter. We call for an end of hostilities, cease-fire and to start dialogue,” Power told reporters Wednesday.

“Militias and special forces need to withdraw from neighboring regions,” she said, apparently referring to Tigray forces that have gone on the offensive since regaining control of their region in late June.

Tigray has been engulfed in conflict since November, when federal troops retaliated for an attack by regional soldiers on an army base. The violence has since spilled into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions as Tigray forces seek to push back against their adversaries following gains in June and July.

Risk of Starvation

The United Nations estimates that more than 400,000 people in the Tigray region are at risk of starvation. Earlier on Tuesday, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said Tigray forces pushing south and east have displaced 200,000 people in the Amhara and 54,000 in Afar to the east.

The head of the World Food Programme on Wednesday said that 175 trucks carrying life saving materials had arrived in Tigray but that the region still needs 100 more a day “to reach the millions in dire need.”

“Now more than ever we need full access, more funds and most important of all a cease-fire,” its head David Beasley said via Twitter.

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