20 August 2024

Mekete Tigray UK

TDA House

211 Clapham Road

London, SW9 0QH

United Kingdom

                                                                                                        Email: MeketeTigrayUK2020@gmail.com

                                                                                                                      Website: https://meketetigrayuk.org 

The Right Honourable David Lammy MP,

Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development,

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office,

King Charles Street,

London, SW1A 2AH,

United Kingdom

Dear Right Honourable David Lammy,

Subject – The Consequences of the Genocidal War in Tigray and the Challenges and Opportunities for Peace

1.     We, the Mekete Tigray UK – an independent diaspora community association of UK citizens and residents of Ethiopian Tigrayan origin – are writing this letter  to inform  and update you about the dire humanitarian situation currently existing in Tigray  following the genocidal war; and to urge the New Labour Government to continue to engage with the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray Regional Government with a view to ending  the catastrophic  humanitarian crisis  including  the widespread hunger, starvation,  and famine like conditions currently happening in Tigray.  We take this opportunity to congratulate you and the new Government and wish you all round success in your role as the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.


 2.     It’s been nearly four years since the onset of the Tigray genocidal war and nearly two years since the signing of the Pretoria Peace Agreement known as the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray Regional Government. However, hunger and starvation continue to be used as a silent weapon, exacerbating the suffering of children, the elderly and the ordinary people of Tigray. The consequences of the Tigray conflict are catastrophic. Over one million Tigrayans dead, 120,000 Tigrayan women and girls sexually assaulted by weaponising rape and sexual violence as a strategy of war; the deliberate and almost total destruction of Tigray’s economy and peoples’ livelihood, the near complete destruction of Tigray’s infrastructure including the health and education sectors; and the deliberate and wanton destruction of Tigray’s religious and cultural heritage as part and parcel of the genocidal war.

 3.    Despite recent very limited positive steps, over 2 million Tigrayans are Internally Displaced, unable to return to their homes. There is a continuing occupation of Tigrayan territories by Eritrean and Amhara forces, contrary to the Pretoria Agreement. Furthermore, the suspension of humanitarian assistance for one year by the World Food Programme and USAID has exacerbated the existing catastrophic humanitarian crisis resulting in the deaths of thousands from starvation. Recently, the humanitarian situation in Tigray has been described as ‘in meltdown’. Relatives report that two families receive 15 kilos of grain to sustain them for two weeks. 

4.      Despite the Cessation of Hostility Agreement signed in November 2022, Tigray remains under siege in economic and security terms.  Ethnic cleansing and starvation as a weapon, continues unabated. The COHA states the Constitutional boundaries of Tigray are respected but Western Tigray remains annexed and is administered by the Amhara forces and the Eritrean armed forces. Tigrayans continue to be persecuted by the occupying forces remaining in the area. Systematic demographic engineering continues in parts of Tigray where people from other regions of Ethiopia have replaced Tigrayans, dispossessing them and putting them at heightened risk of starvation. 
 
5.    The Eastern Tigray region, inhabited by the endangered people of Irob, is under the control of Eritrea, where its army is oppressing the Irob people. Furthermore, no food or medicine reaches the people of Irob. Similarly, the minority Kunama people in Tigray are under the brutal occupation of the Eritrean army.
 
6.     The UNHRC sponsored investigation by the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) of mass atrocities committed in Tigray has   determined that Crime Against Humanity and Ethnic cleansing have been committed by the Ethiopian Army, Eritrean Forces and Amhara militia in Tigray, and all parties to the conflict have been accused of war crimes. The UK Parliament Tigray Inquiry Report of 2023 and the US State Department positions on and determination of mass atrocities committed in Tigray is the same.
 
7.   Furthermore, the New Line Institute Report in 2024 on the war in Tigray has established that a genocide has been committed against the people of Tigray. Various reports by the Ghent University in Belgium, the Yale University Law School in the US, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have widely reported mass atrocity crimes have been committed in Tigray. Yet, to date no single perpetrator of those crimes have been held to account. This is injustice of historic scale and gives impunity to the commission of mass atrocity crimes.
 
8.     The genocidal war in Tigray and its catastrophic consequences are reported by many international agencies as the worst the world has witnessed in the 21st Century when compared with the crisis in the Middle East and the War in Ukraine. Yet, the reporting, attention and response by governments and agencies on Tigray have been scant when compared. We strongly urge that humanitarian concerns and law must be applied without distinction to race, colour, region or geo-political expediency.
 
   
9.      We are writing this letter to you as a matter of urgency and to request that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office fully engage the Ethiopian Government to end the catastrophic situation in Tigray. We urge the UK Government, given its significant economic, financial and diplomatic leverage, to pressurise the Ethiopian government to adhere to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed in Pretoria so that lives can be saved, and people can return to their homes and farm their lands, that is if they ever survive the grim situation.
 
10.   As a conclusion to our letter, we strongly urge and plead the UK Government, the FCDO and International Aid Agencies:
 
a)    To urge and immediately help to mobilise, humanitarian emergency assistance to address the catastrophic crisis to avert a full-blown famine in Tigray;b)     To urge and press the Ethiopian Government to allow the millions of the Internally Displaced Tigrayans to return to their homes and farmsteads;c)      To urge and press the Ethiopian Government to fully implement the Pretoria Peace Agreement by asking the Amhara Regional Forces and the Eritrean Army to leave Tigray so that the IDPs can return to their homes in peace and security, as well as restore Tigray’s constitutional boundaries, jurisdiction and administration in the forcefully occupied Tigrayan territories in Western and Southern Tigray;d)     To urge and press the Ethiopian Government, in particular Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to stop war mongering and his frequent threats to launch another genocidal war in Tigray; ande)      To urge and ensure that perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes are held to account in relevant courts of justice.


11.  We enclose the UNHRC ICHREE Report (2023), UK Parliament Tigray Inquiry Report (2023), the Yale University Law School Report (2023) and the New Line Institute Report – Full and Summary (2024) below which you will find as invaluable information on the genocidal war on Tigray. We believe you would understand our appeal and request. We trust that you would therefore facilitate an urgent action for which the dire situation in Tigray requires.  We have attached below an electronic version of this email. We thank you and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

 Mekete Tigray UK

(Community of Tigrayan Diaspora in the UK)