Three staff from Doctors Without Borders killed in Ethiopia

Three staff members from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been killed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the aid organization said Friday.

A Spanish emergency coordinator and two Ethiopian workers were found dead near their vehicle on Friday, a day after contact to the group was lost.
The circumstances of the deaths were not immediately clear.

“We condemn this attack on our colleagues in the strongest possible terms and will be relentless in learning what happened,” MSF said in a statement.

In a statement Friday evening, the Ethiopian military referred to initial information that rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had abducted and killed them.

The army then insisted on escorting media and aid organization representatives for security reasons.

It is difficult to verify information from the region.

The Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa launched a military offensive in November against the TPLF, which had held power in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia up to that point.

There had been years of tension between the TPLF and central government.
Eritrean troops and militias have since become involved in the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray are dependent on humanitarian aid, but aid groups have not had full access to those in need for a long time because of the security situation and bureaucratic hurdles.