‘They kill us and we are helping them’: Ethiopia’s increasingly nasty civil conflict

Published

4 years ago

October 20, 2021

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We could see a seemingly endless line of trucks as we headed down the highway in northern Ethiopia.

As their contents drew closer we knew the battle ground was shifting in this country’s increasingly nasty civil conflict.

There were thousands of troops perched on the back, clutching automatic weapons while fighting to stay upright. They were accompanied by specialist vehicles hauling artillery and tanks, moving at speed towards the region of Afar.

This arid and underpopulated place has been utterly overlooked as Ethiopia’s federal government and leaders of the restive region of Tigray battle for power and control.

But a major offensive, sanctioned by the country’s leader, Abiy Ahmed, has almost certainly stalled and fighters from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were advancing on communities in Afar.

The region has played host to convoys of a very different sort in recent months as the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) tries to send emergency aid into Tigray.

Estimating that some 400,000 Tigrayans are living in famine-like conditions, the WFP has created a ‘staging post’ in the regional capital of Semera, where humanitarian supplies are loaded onto oversized trucks and we watched as drivers set out on the two-day trip to the Tigrayan border.

But the terrain is difficult and the residents of Afar are decidedly hostile to what is a massive emergency operation.

We saw overturned trucks on the route to the border town of Abala and witnessed residents stealing bags of flour from the vehicles.

The drivers know that some trucks will be stopped – or attacked – and the road is too narrow to turn around.

Yet this is the only route they can use.

I spoke to one driver – a Tigrayan – as he was about to cross this internal frontier.

I asked him if people in Tigray need humanitarian aid.

“It’s needed, my feeling is I am doing important work,” he replied.

Yet the drivers know are taking a chance in the region of Afar.

“Are you worried about coming back?” I asked.

“Yes, I am but I haven’t had any problems yet. I’ve gone back and forth safely.”

The Afaris are angry, blaming Tigrayans for a series of raids and attacks on their communities and they made their displeasure clear to us.

“They kill us, not we kill them, they kill us and we are helping them, all the trucks are using this way and (we are) not stopping (them), not closing any roads,” said a local resident called Ali Mussa Ahmed.

“This is our border, they are killing us (and) we are supporting them,” said Abdu Ebrahim.

Some 60km to the north, near the Afar town of Shahigubi, we found 400 men living under the trees after they had been displaced from their homes by the fighting. Women and children had been sheltered in a nearby school.

I asked one elderly man how long he had been there.

“Three months,” he said.

“How long will you have to stay?”

“Who could ever say?” he replied.

The same simmering resentment exists here at this camp as residents struggle on one meal a day.

During our visit, the men cut up a camel and boiled the meat in a pot but we could see there would not be much to go around.

“These people have destroyed our livelihoods and then we witness all the support that they are getting by land and by air. It bypasses us directly,” said a man called Hamedur Nur.

It is a challenging time for the UN’s humanitarian staff as they try to keep the aid flowing into Tigray.

Three weeks ago, seven senior UN officials were expelled by the Ethiopian authorities for “meddling in the internal affairs of the country”.

The move followed pointed remarks by UN aid chief Martin Griffiths who said a nearly three-month-long “de-facto blockade” had restricted aid deliveries to just 10% of what was needed.

In a statement released on Wednesday evening by the Ethiopian Embassy in London, ambassador Teferi Melesse Desta said: “The government of Ethiopia takes its responsibility to safeguard those who have been affected by the ongoing conflict in the northern part of Ethiopia very seriously and has demonstrated its willingness and commitment to work with the international community to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the affected regions.”

World

‘At least 16’ killed in latest Israeli attacks on Gaza – as 10 children arrive in UK for NHS treatment

Published

11 hours ago

September 17, 2025

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'At least 16' killed in latest Israeli attacks on Gaza - as 10 children arrive in UK for NHS treatment

At least 16 people are said to have died overnight in Israeli attacks in Gaza – as the first group of 10 children arrived in the UK for urgent NHS treatment.

Officials said more than half of those killed in the latest attacks were in Gaza City, where Israel this week began a major ground offensive.

A mother and her child died at an apartment in the city’s Shati refugee camp, according to the Shifa hospital.

The al-Adwa and Nasser hospitals said other victims included a pregnant woman – among three killed when a house was hit in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza – and two parents and their child in the Muwasi area west of Khan Younis.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched its ground assault on Tuesday, in what it called a “new phase” in its bid to destroy Hamas and force the release of the remaining hostages.

It said it was looking into the deaths caused by the latest strikes.

Troops and tanks continued to push deeper into Gaza City on Wednesday despite widespread condemnation of the attempt to take full control of the city.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has called the operation “utterly reckless and appalling”.

Ms Cooper – who last night helped greet the pro-Israel President Trump – said it would “only bring more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians & endanger the remaining hostages”.

Meanwhile, 10 critically ill and injured children from Gaza have arrived in Britain for medical care alongside 50 companions, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

It said they were first evacuated to Jordan and that “robust” security checks were undertaken before the group got approval to travel.

The foreign secretary said the children were “unable to get the medical care they need to survive” in Gaza.

More are expected to arrive in the coming weeks, in what Health Secretary Wes Streeting said “reflects the very best of our NHS values – compassion, care and expertise when it matters most”.

A small number of children were previously brought to the UK and are being treated privately through the Project Pure Hope initiative.

It comes as a coalition of aid groups today urged the international community to do more to stop Israel’s attacks, which it said had caused “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

“States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action,” said a statement signed by the heads of more than 20 organisations working in Gaza.

The call comes a day after a UN commission said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza – a claim the country vehemently denies as “distorted and false”.

Sky News analysis shows thousands of families remain in crowded tent camps in Gaza City, with the UN estimating last week that a million people remain there. Israel, however, believes 40% of the population has already fled south.

Many are taking what little they can and attempting the perilous journey south after Israel warned them to evacuate ahead of it new offensive.

The IDF said another route south for those fleeing would open from noon local time on Wednesday, running along Salah al-Din street along Gaza’s coastline, for two days.

Israel has not said how long its Gaza City operation will last, but that it will involve both air and ground forces and the number of soldiers will increase over the coming days.

It insists it takes strenuous efforts to issue warnings and avoid civilian casualties, but that it’s complicated by Hamas deliberately embedding itself in civilian areas.

Health officials in Gaza say nearly 65,000 people have died in the two years of the war – a figure that does not specify the number of Hamas members killed.

The terror attack on Israel in October 2023 killed around 1,200 and saw 251 taken hostage. Forty-eight remain in Gaza, but fewer then half are though to still be alive.

World

Pressure mounts on PM to raise Israel’s Gaza offensive with Trump

Published

18 hours ago

September 17, 2025

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Pressure mounts on PM to raise Israel's Gaza offensive with Trump

Sir Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to raise Israel’s bombardment of Gaza with Donald Trump during his UK state visit, after a UN Commission said a genocide was taking place.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used the president’s arrival on Tuesday night to call for action on the escalating situation, as Israeli forces advance in Gaza City.

Sky News analysis has found thousands of families remain in the city’s crowded tent camps, despite a ground offensive beginning yesterday.

Sir Ed, who is boycotting the state dinner being held for Mr Trump, said Sir Keir must “press” the president now.

He said: “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide. And the president of the United States, who wants a Nobel Peace Prize, is doing nothing to stop it.”

On Tuesday, a United Nations Commission agreed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza – the first time such an explosive allegation has been made publicly by a UN body.

Israel‘s foreign ministry said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the commission to be abolished.

‘We cannot be bystanders’

Reports suggest the situation will be a talking point between Sir Keir and Mr Trump during his visit.

It comes before the UK is due to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly later this month, along with allies including Canada and France.

In a late night statement, Canada’s foreign ministry described the Gaza City offensive as “horrific”.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed added: “We have long said that Hamas is genocidal and condemned them for their actions.

“Now, I think we have to say that what the Netanyahu government is doing amounts to genocide.”

Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, a former shadow minister, also called on her party leader to make discussing the situation in Gaza with Mr Trump a “top priority”.

Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, she said: “We say ‘never again’ when we look at Bosnia and Rwanda, but here we are again, and it’s been livestreamed, and we’ve all seen it.

“We cannot be bystanders to a genocide.”

UN report pulls no punches

The accusation of genocide is made by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

It alleges Israel has been “killing Palestinians or forcing them to live in inhumane conditions that led to death; causing serious bodily or mental harm, including through torture, displacement and sexual crime; deliberately imposing inhumane conditions, and fourthly, imposing measures intending to prevent births”.

Read more from Sky News:
Zelenskyy makes demand of Trump
Trump sues New York Times

Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars also passed a resolution stating that Israel’s conduct passed the threshold of committing genocide.

However, a report from the British government said it had “not concluded” that Israel intended to “destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

Nearly 65,000 people are now believed to have died, according to figures collated by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

World

Thousands of families remain in Gaza City as Israeli army advances

Published

24 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Thousands of families remain in Gaza City as Israeli army advances

As the Israeli army advances on Gaza City, thousands of families remain in the city’s crowded tent camps.

Sky News analysis of satellite imagery taken on Monday 15 September shows tent camps stretching across the western half of the city.

A close-up view shows one camp spilling out on to the city’s beaches.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched its ground assault overnight on Tuesday 16 September, in what the military said was a “new phase” in its offensive.

“Gaza is burning,” defence minister Israel Katz posted on X as the operation began. “IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described the offensive as “utterly reckless and appalling”, adding that it “will only bring more bloodshed, kill more innocent civilians & endanger the remaining hostages”.

Footage verified by Sky News shows Israeli tanks entering the Gaza Strip from the north overnight on Tuesday.

Israeli soldiers later filmed themselves in an area just north of Gaza City.

Satellite imagery taken a day earlier shows that while some tent camps in the area have been abandoned in the past few days, many others have not.

The IDF advance comes after an intense week of airstrikes targeting buildings in Gaza City. Sky News has verified dozens of videos showing strikes on buildings across the city.

Several of these strikes destroyed entire tower blocks, such as this strike on Al Ghafari Tower.

At least 50 people were killed across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, most of them in Gaza City.

The IDF said it estimated 40% of people in Gaza City had fled south, while Hamas said that only 190,000 out of 1.3 million residents had left (15%).

An evacuation order for the entire city was first issued on 9 September, with a map on 13 September instructing Palestinians to flee to what Israel has designated a “humanitarian area” along a stretch of sandy coastline known as Al Mawasi.

Satellite imagery from Sunday 14 September shows that the area is already crowded with tents.

Last week, the UN’s Gaza humanitarian country team said that “neither the size nor scale of services provided is fit to support those already there, let alone new arrivals”.

Those fleeing south face a journey of at least 15km (9.3 miles), much of it through Israeli-designated combat zones. Local health officials said at least one vehicle travelling south from Gaza City had been hit by an Israeli strike.

Among those staying put on Tuesday was Um Mohammad, who lives in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City.

“It is like escaping from death towards death, so we are not leaving,” she said.

The IDF says the next stage of the operation will involve both air and ground forces, and that the number of soldiers involved will increase over the coming days.

Additional reporting by Sam Doak, OSINT producer.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.