Tigray

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies, and to be back in Westminster Hall—I almost got lost this morning. I, too, pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) for calling for this important and timely debate and for her opening remarks highlighting the need to ensure that the issue stays on the agenda. With the 24-hour news cycle, it is so easy for major issues, issues of this scale, to be pushed down. With constant refreshing and updating, one could almost forget what is going on, so it is important for us in this Parliament to keep this issue on the Government’s agenda and to look at what clear action and response our Government will be leading to help the situation.

The situation is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis—the war that erupted last year and the horrific human rights abuse. Just this week, there have been reports of thousands of men, women and children being forced into concentration camps and of door-to-door ethnic purging of the Tigrayan people. The International Development Committee highlighted the gendered nature of human rights abuses in Tigray, with sexual violence a key feature of such abuse. Last month, a report by Amnesty International revealed that forces aligned to the Ethiopian Government had subjected women and girls to sexual violence, rape and sexual slavery. If we are committed to ending sexual violence against women in this country, we have to be equally committed to helping women and girls in other countries.

For women with family in the region, such as my constituent who contacted me in March, the war has made contacting their loved ones even more difficult. They are worried—petrified—for their loved ones. Tragically, the isolation has made it so much harder for humanitarian aid to get through to the people who need it the most. Food has run out in many regions of Tigray. As the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) highlighted, more than 150 people died of starvation last month alone—that should shame us as a country. There can be no mistake about the level of human suffering being a direct result of the conflict, which shows no sign of a peaceful resolution any time soon.

Like other right hon. and hon. Members, I too ask the Minister what additional support the Government will be offering to address this serious issue and to help bring an end to the conflict. Will the Government use their relationship with the Ethiopian authorities to ensure that Ethiopia’s Government protects the affected communities and brings an end to human rights abuses and the gender-based violence?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (James Duddridge)]

Fantastic. Thank you, Mr Davies, for providing plenty of time. I know that there is lots of interest in this issue across the House, and it is quite right that we review it. This is a great opportunity both to update the House on what is happening and to answer questions directly, and I am more than happy to take interventions throughout.

The horrific conflict in northern Ethiopia has now entered its 11th month. To make matters worse—to reply to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and others—I am concerned about it spreading not only within the region but across the rest of Ethiopia. I will go into more detail on contacts and activity, which are very much at the forefront of what is happening in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office—I was in a meeting with the Foreign Secretary last week reviewing all this. As the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) mentioned, the Foreign Secretary spoke to Prime Minister Abiy last month, and not a day goes by when I do not engage in this issue, either directly or through other intermediaries, whether they be other countries, regional players or organisations. This is not just a concern for the United Kingdom; it is a concern across the continent and for international bodies.

May I address the issue of money? I know that there is a debate about the 0.5% and 0.7% commitments, but the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth nailed it when he referred to Samantha Power. The real issue is not money and resource in Ethiopia; it is getting access. I will go through some of the detail and the numbers on that access. The next stage will be moving from conflict to mediation, when I am sure there will be resourcing issues, and the points being made now will perhaps be more relevant. I will not focus on the broader debate; hopefully hon. Members will recognise that there is a more immediate problem of access.

Let me get into some of the detail and update the House on what has been happening. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front continues military action, which is going beyond Tigray into the Amhara and Afar regions. That is extending the remit and the nature of the suffering. We have consistently called on all sides to stop the fighting. It is horrific to have to listen to the stories of what is happening, but it is clear that rape, sexual violence and famine are being used as weapons of war. Reference was made to chemical weapons. It is difficult to establish definitively what is being used, but it is clear that civilian populations are being targeted, which in itself is against international humanitarian law. If someone’s child, mother or family dies, how they die may be technically relevant, but their being targeted is the offensive thing that we need to stop happening.

Humanitarian agencies are realistically facing what I would describe as a de facto blockade of aid into Tigray. To avert further humanitarian catastrophe beyond the atrocities we have already seen, we call on the Ethiopian Government to allow unfettered access and start restoring essential services. I will go into a bit more detail in a second.

Eritrean forces are, alas, once again in Ethiopian sovereign territory in significant numbers. They must withdraw, and their failure to do so will lead to a further escalation in this conflict, which simply is not needed. The position that both parties are taking is not helpful. I have been asked about mediation. There have been a number of mediation attempts, and there is a lot of discussion. I will not go into the detail of some of that mediation, but it is fair to say that it is not currently working, so different things need to be tried in different ways.

Since November, more than 2 million people have been displaced across Tigray, and 450,000 have been displaced just in Afar and Amhara in the more recent conflicts. Basically, everything has broken down. Ninety per cent. of hospitals and health centres are not working. There are no banking facilities and no electricity. Communications are down, which makes it very difficult to verify some of the stories. If things open up, which we encourage, no doubt we will find out more and it will feel worse.

[Florence Eshalomi]

On communications, I highlighted that I have constituents who are very worried about their families. If the Minister is saying that communication has broken down, is there anything more the Government can do to help Members who are trying to get that crucial information for their constituents?

[James Duddridge]

There are things at the periphery that can be done, but the heart is about building that access in the fullest sense of the word. Early in the conflict, we were even finding evidence of satellite phones from aid organisations being taken and used for other purposes, further breaking down communication. There are some parties that do not want open access to communications—they want to finish the conflict, as they see it—on both sides.

On supplies getting through, there is a need for more than 100 trucks every single day to get in. That is a massive logistical effort, even if everybody were behind it. Since 12 July, only about 10% of the required aid has been able to get through, so UN warehouses in Tigray are not being restocked: they are empty. Most people are not eating, effectively, or are not eating enough. There is no private sector provision, so even if one has money there is nothing to buy. Displaced individuals are relying on host communities who are already suffering. The lack of goods means that prices have gone up fivefold, and community resilience is eroding to the point of tipping over to an even more serious and systemic problem.