Humanitarian Group Warns of Looming Crisis in Ethiopia

After being blocked for several weeks from entering Ethiopia’s rebel Ogaden region, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) has warned that a human-rights crisis is brewing in the area, reports Agence France-Presse.

The region’s government recently cast out the International Committee of the Red Cross, and humanitarian groups have accused the government’s army of burning villages and keeping medical care and supplies from civilians, the wire service reports.

“We are missing a big thing that is happening under our eyes,” says Loris de Filippi, operational coordinator in Ethiopia for Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium. He adds that some areas, which have a combined population of around 400,000, have no drugs and just one doctor.

The recent turmoil comes from military retaliation against rebel uprisings. In a statement, the Ogaden National Liberation Front rebel group asked for the “U.N. to put in place mechanisms that will protect the civilian population Ogaden from continued war crimes.”

The regional government accused the humanitarian group of “violating both their professional ethics and the pact they reached to be non-partisan and non-political in their activities.”