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Ahram Online
The United Nations will evacuate family members of international staff from war torn Ethiopia, as rebels claim to be advancing closer to the capital on Tuesday.
“An internal UN security order asked the organisation to coordinate the evacuation and ensure that all eligible family members of internationally recruited staff depart from Ethiopia no later than 25 November 2021”, stated an official document obtained by the AFP.
The order followed France’s advice to its citizens to leave Ethiopia, after similar advisories by the US and the UK in recent weeks. Decisions were made as clashes between federal forces and Tigrayan rebels edges closer to Addis Ababa.
“All French nationals are formally urged to leave the country without delay. Embassy staff are taking steps to facilitate citizens’ departure booking seats on commercial flights and would organise a charter flight if necessary”, the French embassy in Addis Ababa said in an email sent to French citizens.
Northern Ethiopia has been engulfed by conflict since November 2020 when Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, sent troops into the Tigray region to topple its ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Since then, the TPLF pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions and this week claimed control of Shewa Robit, just 220 kilometres (135 miles) North-East of Addis Ababa. “Some TPLF fighters were believed to have reached Debre Sina, roughly 30 kilometres closer to Addis Ababa”, diplomats briefed on the security situation said.
Communications outage in much of the conflict-hit zone has made battlefield movements difficult to verify. The government has not responded to requests about the status of Shewa Robit.
