Tigray

Helen Hayes Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2021 Westminster Hall

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

Thank you, Mr Davies. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) on securing this important debate.

November will mark one year since the onset of violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. It started in retaliation to an attack on the Northern Command by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. This is a complex conflict, with many different actors on the ground, but the reports of the conflict have consistently included evidence of mass executions, the targeting of Tigrayans by ethnicity, the destruction of crops, livestock and machinery, and the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Tigrayan women and girls have been raped since this conflict began.

The conflict has led to a humanitarian disaster in Tigray, and non-governmental organisations are continuing to report difficulties getting into the region. The latest reports indicate that Tigray is still facing siege-like conditions, and a recent UN aid convoy was held at a checkpoint for two days, after which only nine of the trucks were allowed to proceed. Some 5.5 million people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity, and 350,000 are at catastrophic risk. There are sickening accounts of Tigrayans being held in prison camps near the Sudanese border, with reports from Sudan of corpses floating down the Setit river, clearly identifiable as Tigrayans and showing signs of torture. This conflict contains the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and there are reports of the use of white phosphorus, which, although not classified as a chemical weapon, delivers appalling injuries.

In addition to the problems with humanitarian access, it has been very difficult for journalists seeking to report on the situation in Tigray. Some extremely brave journalists have continued to do so, often placing themselves in grave danger and facing an aggressive smear campaign for their work. I pay particular tribute to Nima Elbagir and Lucy Kassa—brave women who have done so much to bear witness to the atrocities in Tigray.

Despite the horrors unfolding in Tigray, this conflict has remained under-reported and under-prioritised by the international community. I secured an Adjournment debate on Tigray in March, and at that time, five months into the conflict, with 10,000 women and girls at that point reported to have been raped, that was the only debate to have taken place on the issue in any western Parliament. I have constituents with loved ones in Tigray who are in fear for their lives, and constituents working with NGOs in Ethiopia, seeking to deliver aid to Tigray.

The response to the conflict from the UN so far has been insufficiently resourced, and there is an urgent need for additional capacity. In this context, it is also concerning that the Government of Ethiopia appear to be withdrawing from the international community, with reports that as many as half—about 30—of their international embassies are to close.

I hope that the Minister will set out today what the UK Government are doing to secure a stronger response from the UN and ensure that the attention of the international community is focused on Tigray. What are the Government doing to increase the mobilisation of UK-funded aid to support UK nationals delivering humanitarian assistance? What are the Government doing to secure a peace process to prevent this conflict from escalating further, across Ethiopia and the horn of Africa? Will the UK Government prioritise trauma support and healthcare services for women and girls who are survivors of rape and sexual violence, as a first-order priority of their humanitarian response? And will the Minister finally recognise the catastrophic implications of cutting international aid at this time?

The conflict in Ethiopia risks a humanitarian catastrophe potentially as serious as the famine of the 1980s, and there are other, equally pressing priorities across the world, including the 18 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. In the current context of cuts, each time the Minister stands up and says that the Government are committing additional resources to a humanitarian emergency, it prompts the question: at the expense of which other humanitarian priority is that additional aid being delivered? This simply cannot be justified in the face of such unfolding horror.