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Agence France-Presse

One Spanish and two Ethiopian employees of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres have been “brutally murdered” in Ethiopia’s war-torn northern Tigray region, the organisation said on Friday.
The trio “were travelling yesterday afternoon when we lost contact with them. This morning, their vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies”, the international aid group said in a statement.
“No words can truly convey all our sadness, shock and outrage against this horrific attack.”

The United Nations called for Ethiopia to launch a swift investigation into the killings.
Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN’s acting assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs, described the attack as “outrageous and saddening”.
“Authorities must now promptly investigate these reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law,” he added.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, named the Spanish victim as 35-year-old aid coordinator Maria Hernandez from Madrid.
She started working with MSF in 2015 in the Central African Republic and had since worked in Yemen, Mexico and Nigeria.
The other victims were Yohannes Halefom Reda, a 31-year-old coordination assistant who had joined MSF in February, and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, also 31, who had been a driver for the charity since May.
“We condemn this attack on our colleagues in the strongest possible terms and will be relentless in understanding what happened,” said MSF, which was founded in Paris but is headquartered in Geneva and has several global affiliates.
“Maria, Yohannes and Tedros were in Tigray providing assistance to people, and it is unthinkable that they paid for this work with their lives.”

In a tweet, Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya expressed her “great sadness” and said she was in contact with Ethiopian authorities to “clarify” what happened and repatriate Hernandez’s remains.
The European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrel said the bloc condemned the aid workers’ killings “in the strongest possible terms”, adding: “This atrocity is another horrific example of the escalation of the conflict in Tigray.”
The Ethiopian foreign ministry confirmed that three humanitarian workers had been killed in the Abi Adi area, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the regional capital Mekele, adding that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) operate in the region.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to Tigray in November to oust the dissident regional leadership, promising a swift victory.


But the fighting continues nearly eight months later, and it has triggered a humanitarian crisis which the UN warns has left 350,000 people on the brink of famine.
The violence has increased in recent days.
On Tuesday at least 64 people were killed and 180 injured in an air strike on a market in the Tigray region.
The Ethiopian military admitted carrying out the attack on the town of Togoga, but said it had targeted rebel fighters, not civilians.
Details of the bloody attack were slow to emerge partly because soldiers initially blocked emergency workers from accessing the area.
World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the attack in his native Tigray, saying attacks on civilians were “completely unacceptable”.
“Ambulances were blocked for more than a day from attending the scene and evacuating the wounded for medical care,” he said.


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Africa

Three Medecins Sans Frontieres aid workers killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Medecins Sans Frontieres worker Maria Hernandez, from Spain, was killed along with two other MSF Ethiopia staff in an attack in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Friday. Photo: EPA – EFE

People wait in a line to enter a bank in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia, on June 25, 2021. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)

epa09301022 Spanish Foreign Affair Minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, and her Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein (unseen), during a press conference following their meeting at Viana Palace, in Madrid, central Spain, 25 June 2021. EPA-EFE/Fernando Alvarado

UN calls for inquiry after dozens killed in Ethiopia market air strike

A boy receives medical treatment after an air strike on a market in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Photo: AFP

A tank damaged in fighting between Ethiopian government and Tigray forces is pictured near the town of Humera, Ethiopia, March 3, 2021. Picture taken March 3, 2021. To match Special Report ETHIOPIA-CONFLICT/EXPULSIONS REUTERS/Baz Ratner

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A member of the National Electoral Board unloads ballots on a table in front of observers after polls closed in Addis Ababa, on June 21, 2021, during Ethiopia's legislative and regional elections. Photo: AFP

A long queue of voters is seen at a polling station in Addis Ababa, on June 21, 2021 as the deadline for the closing of the polls nears. Polling stations were scheduled to close at 6pm (1500 GMT) but were extended at the last minute by three hours to allow for final voting, the electoral board said. - Ethiopians voted on June 21, 2021, in a delayed national election against the backdrop of war and famine in the northern Tigray region and questions over the poll's credibility. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, 44, is facing voters for the first time since coming to power in 2018 championing a democratic revival in Africa's second-most populous country, and a break from its authoritarian past. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)

Taxi drivers stand in front of campaign banners of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Birhanu Nega, head of the Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice party, hours before Ethiopia's parliamentary and regional elections, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 20, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is hugged by a supporter after casting his vote in the general election, in his home town of Beshasha, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia Monday, June 21, 2021. Ethiopia began voting Monday in the greatest electoral test yet for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as war and logistical issues meant ballots wouldn't be cast in more than 100 of the 547 constituencies across the country. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

People queue at a polling station to vote during the Ethiopian parliamentary and regional elections, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday. Photo: Reuters

At G7 summit, thousands march in protest over climate change, Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis and Myanmar coup

Protesters rally in Falmouth, Cornwall, Britain to call for the end of the military coup in Myanmar, in conjunction with the G7 summit. Photo: DPA

Demonstrators hold Tigray’s flags as they gather by the sea in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK during the G7 summit. Photo: Reuters

Protestors attend an Extinction Rebellion demonstration in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

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World


The missing trio’s ‘vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies,’ the international aid group said on Friday
The United Nations called for Ethiopia to launch a swift investigation into the killings



The missing trio’s ‘vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies,’ the international aid group said on Friday.


World Health Organization (WHO)

United Nations