The United Nations has announced that over 50,000 people have been displaced from their homes in northern Ethiopia due to ongoing conflicts in a disputed area, raising international concerns. According to a report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday night, the displacement has been triggered by armed clashes in the towns of Alamata and Raya Alamata since April 13, as reported by authorities in the disputed area between the Tigray and Amhara regions.
OCHA noted that approximately 42,000 displaced individuals fled southward, mainly towards the vicinity of Kobo town, while another 8,300 moved northward towards the town of Sekota. The majority of those displaced are reported to be women, children, youths, and the elderly. The towns of Alamata and its surroundings in the contested Raya area, disputed between Tigray and Amhara, have seen escalating clashes between fighters from the two ethnicities over the past ten days.
Historically, the Raya (southern Tigray) and Welkait (western Tigray) areas were administratively part of Tigray in the 1990s and have been claimed by the Amhara ethnic group for decades. Amhara militias and “special forces” entered these areas in November 2020 when a conflict erupted between the government and Tigray rebels, establishing their administration.
A peace agreement signed in November 2022 in Pretoria between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front mandates the withdrawal of Amhara forces that had provided crucial military support to the Ethiopian army during the war against Tigray rebels. The identities of the fighters involved in the latest clashes remain unclear.
Last Wednesday, Amhara authorities accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of “launching an invasion… in complete violation of the Pretoria agreement,” urging them to “quickly leave the areas they control.” The previous day, the head of the interim regional authority in Tigray, Getachew Reda, spoke about “incidents in southern Tigray and other occupied territories,” stating on the platform “X” that these were not caused by conflicts between the federal government and the interim administration, or the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, but were acts of “sworn enemies of the Pretoria agreement.”
Embassies in Ethiopia, including missions from France, Britain, Germany, and the United States, expressed their concerns last Saturday about reports of violence in the disputed areas of northern Ethiopia, calling in a joint statement for “de-escalation and the protection of civilians.” Verification of the situation on the ground is not possible, as federal authorities prevent journalists from entering the area.
