Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady TD has called on the Irish government to take strong and vocal action to mobilise both the EU and the UN, in order to address the emerging threat of famine and bring to an end the violence in Ethiopia.

The Wicklow TD said:

“We are five months into an emergency in the Tigray area of Ethiopia, where the list of ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities reads like a catalogue of horror.

“The Irish government needs to show leadership, by using its position on the UN Security Council to bring the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia to the consciousness of the international community to the degree that they can no longer ignore the horror of what is occurring on the ground there.

“Having contended with five months of mass killings, mass rapes, and widespread abuses, the civilian population of the Tigray region are facing huge food shortages.

“The World Peace Foundation has issued a warning that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated to the point that the Tigray region is facing into a pending famine.

“Alongside mass rape, starvation crimes are being committed on a large scale.

“To date the cacophony of international criticism has achieved little other than prompting the primary antagonists in the conflict to intensify their military offensive – before the international community acts.

“We are at a stage now that countless appeals to the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have proven useless.

“Ireland must use the international standing that secured our country a position on the UNSC to become the voice that it promised to be for those who suffer.

“The government must make the international community sit up, listen, and act to end the suffering of the people of the Tigray region of Ethiopia.”