Aid & development, explained.
Letebrahan, 35, sits outside the tarpaulin tent she shares with her one-year-old daughter Zenehawit in Mekele, Ethiopia, on 20 March 2025 (Ximena Borrazas via Getty Images)
Australia should encourage international condemnation after a blockade of relief trucks in the northern regions of Ethiopia.
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Tigray can’t afford another war, and the world can’t afford to do nothingTigray can’t afford another war, and the world can’t afford to do nothing
Despite the war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia ending in November 2022, tensions are again escalating. Locals are braced for the possibility of another outbreak of violence.
The two-year Tigray war was sharp and deadly, with up to 700,000 people killed and as many as 120,000 women raped. It is estimated the conflict left about 10,000 schools damaged, with 8 million children affected. And the region remains in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis. More than 21.4 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, mostly in the Tigray, Oromo and Amhara regions. It leaves a cocktail of tensions that could quickly break out into another war.
The political background is important. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was the leader of a four-party coalition government of Ethiopia from 1991 until 2018, when discontentment about the level of democracy in Ethiopia led to protests and a government reshuffle. Abiy Ahmed assumed the role of Prime Minister with the promise of political reform. In 2019 he set up the Prosperity Party and removed the TPLF from power.
A targeted visa offered to Tigrayan refugees that is specific to experiences of displaced persons in Ethiopia could have profound impacts.
In 2019 Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving a decades-old border conflict with Eritrea. But within a year, the Tigray war broke out between the TPLF and Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. The war lasted from November 2020 to November 2022 before the TPLF and Ethiopian Government signed the Pretoria Agreement, ending the violence. Yet in the time since, several of the core agreements essential to ensuring peace have not been fulfilled: Eritrean and Ethiopian military forces remain in Tigray, commitments to assist nearly two million internally displaced people return to their places of origin have been abandoned, and systematic blockades against humanitarian aid entering the region persist.
The situation took a negative turn last month, with the Ethiopian government blocking foreigners from flying to the north of the country (Tigray, Afar, Amhara) on 11 May, followed by Abiy Ahmed revoking the legal status of the TPLF three days later, thus banning the party from participating in upcoming elections. Since 26 May, checkpoints have been set up in Afar and Amhara to prevent trucks from entering Tigray. Truck drivers have been denied entry without explanation for the ban, despite having the correct legal documents to permit entry.
A protest this week in Mekele, Tigray in Ethiopia (Supplied)
Some 90 per cent of Tigray’s population relies on emergency aid to survive. Blockades such as this current one – as well as the countless restrictions before it – constitute crimes against humanity. Starvation should not be used as a weapon of war and the international community must be vocal in its condemnation about the blocking of relief trucks into the northern regions of Ethiopia. Unfettered access to the limited aid coming into the country is vital for the survival of many people in Tigray, especially since the shuttering of USAID in the first weeks of the Trump administration hit hard in Ethiopia.
In June last year, Australia committed $6 million to providing humanitarian assistance to the region, acknowledging that “Ethiopia is host to over one million refugees, making it the second largest refugee-hosting country in Africa.” However, the total amount committed to the Horn of Africa equals less than one dollar per person, and Australia can, and should, do so much more.
Thousands of refugees in the area are trapped with few avenues for relocation or assistance. Australia has previously opened specific humanitarian channels for individuals facing extreme violence or persecution – most recently for Ukrainians and Syrians. A targeted visa offered to Tigrayan refugees that is specific to experiences of displaced persons in Ethiopia could have profound impacts on supporting the most vulnerable and their communities.
Australia also needs to condemn the arbitrary blockades against the Tigrayan people and encourage international pressure on Ethiopia to ensure unhindered passage of supplies to the north. People should not be cut off from receiving food, water, medicine or internet – this contradicts fundamental human rights and endangers the lives of the most vulnerable.
About the author
Sheridan Ward
Sheridan Ward is a researcher on non-militarisation and countries without sovereign military institutions.
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