Ethiopia Denies Trying to 'Suffocate' Tigray

NAIROBI, KENYA - Ethiopia’s government rejected accusations Friday that it’s trying to “suffocate" the people of Tigray by denying them urgently needed food and other aid, as transport and communications links remained severed to the region that faces one of the world's worst famines in a decade.

Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen spoke to reporters a day after a bridge that’s crucial for accessing much of the region of 6 million people was destroyed and the United Nations indicated that special forces from the neighboring Amhara region were to blame. Amhara authorities have occupied western Tigray and forced out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans. “The insinuation that we are trying to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale. There is absolutely no reason for us to do so. These are our people,” Demeke said. Ethiopia's government blamed Tigray forces for the bridge's destruction. But an aid worker who traveled to the site said area residents described to him how they saw Amhara special forces placing objects on the bridge and driving away after the blast. “They still seemed in shock at what had happened,” Roger Sandberg, vice president of field operations with Medical Teams International, told The Associated Press.