Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaks at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva during an urgent debate on the Ukraine situation.
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet expressed her alarm about the persistence of "severe and large-scale breaches" of human rights in Ethiopia as the Human Rights Council's 49th regular session began on Monday.
On Monday, the Human Rights Council in Geneva convened. The United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, briefed the council on the situation in Ethiopia as the 49th regular session continued.
The situation in the war-torn Tigray province has deteriorated in recent months, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"I am alarmed by the growing humanitarian crisis. Hostilities and insecurity continue to block the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray by the Semera-Abala-Mekelle road, which has not been accessible since 15 December last year", Michelle Bachelet said.
Since the battle began in 2020, it has steadily spread over Tigray, Afar, and Amhara. The UN Commissioner's Office received reports of "widespread human rights breaches." There were 306 rape incidents in the Amhara region by Tigrayan forces between November 1 and December 5, 2021; 304 people were allegedly killed and 373 injured in air strikes apparently carried out by the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF)" in Tigray; and eyewitnesses observed severe damage to schools and health facilities in the Amhara and Afar regions.
Even though Ethiopia's parliament repealed the wartime state of emergency last month, efforts to reach a truce continue.
Meanwhile, four out of every five people in Tigray were considered to be food insecure, while half of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Food Program.
