UN Security Council to Meet on Tigray

UNITED NATIONS - A new meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tigray in Ethiopia, where fighting continues, will be held Thursday at the request of the United States, AFP learned Wednesday from diplomatic sources.

This session will be held behind closed doors, like the last meeting, which was held on March 4. At the time, China and Russia opposed the adoption of a unanimous declaration calling for an "end to violence" in Tigray. Beijing and Moscow consider the armed conflict in Tigray since the beginning of November an "internal affair." On Thursday, the 15 members of the council are expected to hear a briefing on the situation by U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, while the obstacles to the delivery of aid to the populations have not ceased, according to the U.N. In early March, Lowcock demanded that Eritrea withdraw its troops from Tigray in the first recognition by a U.N. official in New York of Eritrea's involvement in the fighting.