UN pressure on Ethiopia ramps up as humanitarian crisis deepens

The Biden administration’s new envoy to the United Nations is seeking to dial up the pressure on countries like Ethiopia and Yemen to end their conflicts as growing humanitarian crises in the midst of a global pandemic push millions to the brink of starvation.

The U.S., which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, was joined by Ireland and other council members in pressing Ethiopia’s government to end a war that’s been raging in its northern Tigray region, warning that vast numbers of displaced people run the risk of starvation.

“Fighting in the Tigray region over the past four months has driven innocent citizens to the brink. Food stocks are depleted. Acute malnutrition is rising,” Linda Thomas-greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said at a council meeting on Thursday. “We cannot allow this situation to deteriorate further.”

The United States ambassador has made humanitarian crises a key part of her focus at the U.N., but deadlock in the Security Council has impeded meaningful action from Ethiopia to Syria to Myanmar.

Diplomats have so far failed to negotiate a council statement calling to end the violence in Ethiopia because of objections from China, Russia and India to a statement drafted by Ireland.

U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres appealed for $5.5 billion in funding to avert catastrophe for 34 million people around the world facing food insecurity.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an incursion into Tigray on Nov. 3 after regional forces attacked a federal military camp in the region, the culmination of months of tension between the national government and provincial authorities.

While Abiy declared victory on Nov. 28, fighting has persisted