The United States government has called for the UN Security Council to convene to discuss what its Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described as "daily carnage" in the Tigray Regional State of Ethiopia.
Not a single meeting has taken place among Security Council members since the war in Tigray began in November last year, despite the humanitarian toll and a series of reports of killings, rape and wanton destruction. The United States and the European Commission have been pushing for the Council to adopt the humanitarian crisis as an agenda, but have been frustrated by countries such as China and Russia.
"It's truly shocking," said Samanta Power, head of USAID, who spoke at a virtual meeting organised ahead of the G7 leaders summit scheduled tomorrow. "We go down in history as a shameful period."
Sponsored by the European Commission, the virtual meeting, is the first high pitched global summit that zoomed in on the war and humanitarian toll in Tigray.
The panellists, including Janez Lenarcic, EU commissioner for Crisis Management, and Jutta Urpilaninen, commissioner for International Partnerships, emphasised the message that the crisis in Tigray is human-made, hence avoidable. But they insisted that the attention the world has given is insufficient and blamed the Ethiopian government as an obstructionist.
Close to 300,000 people are feared to have faced famine in Tigray, and more than one million people are unreachable for humanitarian emergency assistance, international aid organisations urge.
"There is famine now," says Mark Lowcock, chief of UNOCHA.
These are allegations Ethiopian authorities deny, in a statement they issued a day before the virtual session being conducted today.
The transatlantic alliance is urging for a global united front in response to the unfolding events in Tigray.
"What happens in Ethiopia does not stay within Ethiopia," said Commissioner Urpilainen.
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