Hospitals struck in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, report says

NAIROBI, Kenya — Many of the hospitals in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region, outside its capital, have been struck by artillery during the two months of fighting, according to the first humanitarian assessment of the devastation as desperately needed supplies begin to arrive.

The scale of the damage has been largely unknown while Ethiopian forces pursue and clash with those of the now-fugitive Tigray regional leaders, with the involvement of troops from neighboring Eritrea. Transportation and communications links were severed. More than 50,000 people have fled to Sudan, with some telling of mass abductions, torture and killings along ethnic lines.

The United Nations and rights groups have long emphasized that intentional attacks on hospitals are war crimes. The assessment does not say who fired at the hospitals; the U.N. humanitarian agency said it did not have confirmation of such details.

Tigray leaders dominated Ethiopia’s government for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power and sidelined them amid sweeping changes that won him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. The prime minister has rejected international “interference” in the conflict, which continues outside the Tigray capital, Mekele, and in other areas.

The full humanitarian assessment, seen by The Associated Press, was prepared by a joint mission of Ethiopia’s government, U.N. agencies and aid groups that visited Mekele and communities in southern Tigray in late December after weeks of pleading by the U.N. and others for access.

Food, medical supplies and other basics have run alarmingly low across the region. The assessment cites regional authorities as saying more than 4.5 million people, more than two-thirds of the population, need humanitarian assistance.