Conflict in Ethiopia

Gary Streeter Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Order. The wind-ups begin at 5.10 pm. We therefore have about 30 minutes and there are six of you seeking to catch my eye, so that is about five minutes each. Let us be disciplined voluntarily.

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[Kate Osamor (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Gary. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield) for securing this important debate and setting the scene. As horrific as it is, it is important that we never forget. It goes without saying that the suffering caused by the conflict in Ethiopia is truly heartbreaking. I have constituents with family in Tigray who have not seen or heard from any of their family members in the past two years because of the communication blackout. They do not know whether their families are alive or dead. Indeed, the stories they have heard about the conditions in Tigray mean that their assumption is that some of their family members will almost certainly have passed away.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the conflict, more than 3 million are internally displaced and 13 million need food aid in northern Ethiopia. Yet there is a sense that this humanitarian crisis is not being treated with the utmost urgency. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the crisis in Ethiopia is one of the 10 most neglected displacement crises in the world, all of which are in Africa.

Last week, members of the International Development Committee and I were lucky enough to be joined by experts on the horn of Africa’s hunger crisis. We were told that the conflict in Tigray has intersected with a series of other factors to create a devastating food crisis. High inflation in world markets, partly as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, is pushing up the price of food and fertilisers. Climate change is increasing the prevalence of droughts, and the covid pandemic is devastating economies and livelihoods. We were told that there is the real possibility of famine and that the World Food Programme has not managed to get aid into Tigray since 24 August. We must welcome the recent agreement to allow full access to food and aid, but must closely track its implementation. There is no time to waste with almost a third of children already suffering from malnutrition. Michael Dunford, who is regional director at the World Food Programme across the horn of Africa, said at the evidence session that the cuts to the overseas aid budget are harming the WFP’s ability to respond to people’s needs. He said that, in 2019, the World Food Programme benefited from £181 million funding from the UK Government. In 2022, it has received less than a third of that figure—£55 million.

The Government are failing to do all that is possible to provide humanitarian support and help create the conditions for lasting peace and prosperity for the people of Ethiopia. I would therefore like to make three recommendations to the Minister. First, we must restore our commitment to spending 0.7% of GDP on overseas development assistance if we want to retain the capacity to adequately respond to crises. Secondly, a significant amount of funding must be immediately directed to bilateral aid for Ethiopia. Thirdly, we need to restore our previous contributions to multilateral agencies, such as the World Food Programme.

The Committee also received evidence from Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR representative in Ethiopia. He told us last week that we need greater investment in medium to long-term programmes to ensure resilience to climate change, which would include irrigation schemes and drought-resistant crops. I hope the Minister, who is in his place, will listen to all of us and be able to help not only those of us in this Chamber today, but the families who are worried sick from not knowing whether their families are alive or dead.

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

I made an error: I counted six instead of five speakers, so the next two speakers can in fact have six minutes each. I apologise—especially to you, Jeremy.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Can I come back for two more minutes?

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

No. I call Jim Shannon —you can have six minutes.

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[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair today, Sir Gary. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield) on securing this important debate. The conflict in Ethiopia, which began two years ago in the region of Tigray, has been and continues to be brutal, devastating and destabilising for the wider horn of Africa. There are reports of thousands of deaths and abductions and of the widespread use of rape and sexual violence in the conflict, and warnings that the scale and systematic nature of the violence, and the language that accompanies it, may amount to genocide.

I pay tribute today to brave journalists, including Lucy Kassa, who has borne witness to the scale and intensity of the violence, and politicians, including Filsan Ahmed, who resigned from the Ethiopian Government over their handling of the conflict in Tigray. Both are remarkable young women who have borne significant personal cost for their work to give voice to people suffering under this conflict.

For some of my constituents, the conflict in Tigray has meant a total loss of contact with close family members over the past two years. I have a constituent whose parents and brother, who has Down’s syndrome, are in Tigray. She knows that her aunt was one of the first to be killed in the conflict, but she has not had any word at all from other family members for more than two years, resulting in unbearable worry, anxiety and anguish.

The conflict has left 20 million people across Ethiopia in urgent need of food aid, hospitals entirely without medicine and 2.8 million children without access to school. The scale of the conflict is as appalling as its brutality, with 500,000 people dead as a result of fighting and conflict-related factors such as famine, and 100,000 dead just since the fighting resumed in September. Yet for a conflict that is causing such suffering and has the potential to cause such widespread destabilisation, there has been extraordinarily little international outcry or mainstream media coverage of the devastation and insufficient international engagement.

The ceasefire that was recently signed is welcome, but it is not clear that it is yet having any impact, with further reports of violence today—not entirely surprising given the absence of the Eritrean authorities from the negotiations, since Eritrean forces are reported to be among the main perpetrators of violence in Tigray.

The humanitarian need is desperate, as is the need to investigate the crimes that have been committed so far within this conflict, to gather evidence and testimony and to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. There has been extensive verification of widespread atrocities in Ethiopia, including by Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights Council. Their inquiries have found evidence of atrocities that may amount to war crimes, including massacres of civilians and evidence of language indicative of genocide.

One extreme feature of this conflict is the widespread use of sexual violence. Conservative estimates are that more than 26,000 women have been affected, while some estimates are far higher. While all parties to the conflict have been accused of atrocities, the UNHRC’s investigation identifies Tigrayan women as having been targeted for particular violence. It also found that the Ethiopians were the only air force in possession of the drones being used in aerial bombardments, including on a refugee camp.

The highly respected Dr Denis Mukwege Foundation released a report in November 2022 that concluded that data suggests Ethiopian and allied forces committed conflict-related sexual violence on a widespread and systemic basis in order to eliminate and/or forcibly displace the ethnic Tigrayan population. The UN Human Rights Council has found action taken by the Ethiopian legal justice system to be wholly inadequate in terms of numbers of prosecutions and lack of information about prosecutions and convictions. It is a dire situation that demands the attention of the world.

I welcome the Minister to his place. I know that he has a personal commitment to see peace in Ethiopia. I ask him to set out what actions the UK Government are taking over atrocity crimes in Ethiopia, both through direct interventions with the Ethiopian Government and through the UN. Will the Government invite representatives from Tigrayan civil society and other diaspora communities in the UK affected by conflict-related sexual violence to their Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict conference? What actions are the UK Government taking to progress and support investigations on the reports of genocide in the Tigray region of Ethiopia? Finally, what actions are the UK Government taking to help to secure humanitarian access into Tigray to meet the urgent needs of the population there?

My constituents, and all those whose families are affected by this terrible conflict, need to know that the UK Government are doing everything possible to work for peace, justice and humanitarian access.

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

We now turn to the Front-Bench speeches. I suggest seven minutes rather than five for the first two speeches, then the Minister can take the rest.

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[Ms Brown]

My right hon. Friend has known me long enough to know that I agree entirely with what he just said. As my hon. Friends the Members for Canterbury, for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), and for Edmonton (Kate Osamor), have highlighted, there have been many credible reports of repeated war crimes and potential crimes against humanity.

It is unacceptable that the UN-mandated International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia has been so heavily restricted in its work. Despite those restrictions, the commission has set out damning evidence of horrifying abuses by all parties to the conflict. Because of the lack of access for journalists and human rights defenders, the violations we know about may well be only the tip of the iceberg.

It would be good to know how we are preparing for the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative conference in two weeks’ time. There have been many reports of women, children and men being subject to horrific sexual violence, including repeated rape and torture. Many seem to have been targeted, based on their identity, with sexual violence being used as a weapon of war. I hope that the Minister will tell us how the UK is working to support survivors through access to specialist services, including mental and physical health support, and access to justice.

For many of the survivors who have been displaced it is not currently safe to return home. Many are in camps in Sudan as well as across Ethiopia. I am sure we all understand that specialist support needs to get to where they are now, and quickly. I genuinely struggle to see how the enormous divisions in Ethiopia will mend without proper accountability. That is about security as well as justice for the victims.

I am struggling to understand how we can have confidence in a sustainable peace, if there is not healing and inclusion in Ethiopia. I hope that the Minister will tell us more about the approach that he will take to support credible accountability for the countless victims of abuses in this war. I want to ask the Minister about some of the pitfalls, as it would be devastating to the people of Ethiopia and damaging to UK interests if the agreement fails.

First, the agreement excludes Eritrea, and it is not clear how the rapid withdrawal of all Eritrean forces will be ensured. The Government have failed to mirror previous US sanctions against Eritrean entities involved in the conflict, so I hope that the Minister will consider that as a lever that he might have to deploy.

We know that there are significant border disputes, particularly around western Tigray. Many of the alleged systematic abuses, including ethnic cleansing, relate to that area. A pathway will need to resolve those disputes fairly and peacefully. The ceasefire does not end the need for close and consistent engagement by the UK—far from it. Let us be clear: the UK has much to gain from a just peace.

Ethiopia has made an enormous contribution to sustainable development and to the pan-African vision and its institution. The potential of the people of Ethiopia is even greater than their history. I believe that our partnership and collaboration could be much stronger if the UK supports the peace to hold, and if justice is done and seen to be done for the peoples of that very great country.

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Just before I call the Minister, can I check, Rosie, whether you want to take advantage of time to wind up the debate ?

[Rosie Duffield]

I think I would like to give the time to the Minister.

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[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

We will give time to the Minister. It is a pleasure to call the Minister, Andrew Mitchell.

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[Mr Mitchell]

I do apologise. The hon. Lady the Member for Edmonton (Kate Osamor), who always takes a great interest in international development, asked specifically about the figures for aid, and made three very interesting recommendations. Others, too, asked for these figures. In the last 18 months, the UK has provided nearly £90 million of humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia. Our support has reached people in Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Somalia and Oromia, and last year UK funding in Ethiopia provided nutritious food for over 200,000 malnourished women and children; emergency health supplies for 1 million people; clean water to over 200,000 people; and child protection services to over 40,000 children affected by the conflict.

In August, the UK provided an additional £6 million to the Ethiopian humanitarian fund, and in October the former Minister for Development, the right hon. Member for Chelmsford, announced £14 million of support to assist 150,000 women and children affected by conflict and drought. Those contributions are part of a wider £156 million UK commitment to humanitarian support for crises in east Africa this financial year. The hon. Member for Edmonton will recall that when I had responsibility for these matters at the Department for International Development I was always keen to demonstrate what results we achieved for that expenditure of British taxpayers’ money, so alongside the figure that I have given her I stress the number of people we are reaching with that sort of aid.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) asked about religious freedom. To amplify what I said earlier, at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council we co-sponsored a resolution to extend the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, and we have added £4.5 million to help to build the capacity of Ethiopia and the Human Rights Commission. That does not directly address his point about religious freedom, but I am sure that he will understand that it goes hand in hand with human rights. We are very conscious of the importance of the issue that he raised.

The hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) asked about PSVI. I want her to know that we have invited a range of representatives, including from civil society groups. She also talked about the role of journalists. We are very conscious of that, and she will know that the Government have made a particular point of trying to support press freedom overseas through the work of the Foreign Office. She asked whether people would be held to account for what they have done. I stress as strongly as I can that we will do everything that we can to ensure that there is no impunity for war crimes and those who have committed human rights abuses.

The hon.—

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Order. I am so sorry; our time has run out. We could have listened to the Minister for a lot longer.