News: “The pressure to open a corridor through western Tigray is unacceptable.” says NDRMC commissioner

By Getahun Tsegaye @GetahunTsegay12

Addis Abeba, August 03/2021 -“The pressure to open a corridor through western Tigray is unacceptable,”  Mitiku Kassa, National Disaster Risk Management Commissioner told a local news outlet today. 

According to the report, the NRDC noted that ‘some Westerners and their institutions’  are pushing for the opening of a corridor through western Tigray to provide assistance to those in need of humanitarian assistance. Assistance is being provided to the people of Tigray by the federal government and Afar State, he said.

Mitiku told the local newspaper that in particular that the TPLF, which has been engaged in battles with special forces of the Amhara and Afar regions and according to him in defiance of the government’s ceasefire, has seized more than 170 vehicles carrying aid to Tigray State.

 He accused ‘some Western countries and their institutions’ of taking advantage of this opportunity to request the opening of a corridor through Western Tigray to transport  aid through Sudan.

 “Even though some Western countries and their institutions insisted for such additional corridor openings,  the government has strong positions that the Djibouti line is sufficient to provide assistance to the needy and that it will not open any more corridors,” the commissioner stated. 

This commissioner’s comments come as repeated requests by international humanitarian organizations to open a humanitarian corridor via sudan. A demand also echoed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a group designated as terrorist by the House of People’s Representatives. AS