104 Bangladeshis trapped in Ethiopia leave Tigray region

At least 104 Bangladeshi workers, who were trapped for 10 days in Tigray region of Ethiopia where federal troops are fighting local forces, were rescued on Saturday.

“The workers of DBL Group have left the restive region for capital Addis Ababa with a convoy of the UN and the Bangladesh Embassy in the African country on Saturday,” said MA Jabbar, managing director of DBL Group.

“We’ve been informed some time ago that the Bangladeshis are on their way to Addis Ababa with a UN convoy,” Jabbar said.

DBL, a leading Bangladeshi garment manufacturer, has booked hotel rooms in Addis Ababa for the workers. It is yet to be decided whether they will stay in the Ethiopian capital or return to Bangladesh.

Earlier, Jabbar sought help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to rescue the workers who were trapped in Tigray region of Ethiopia where federal troops are fighting local forces.

The factory established by DBL in Tigray in 2018 employed about 2,000 workers, including Bangladeshis and Ethiopians. DBL Group suspended production at its plant in Ethiopia.

The DBL authorities said the workers had been evacuated to a safe place in the city after the clashes began. The situation worsened after a regional rebel group in Tigray attacked the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

According to Reuters, Ethiopia’s federal government has declared war on Tigray, leading to fears of a protracted conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country.

The Tigray region is one of 10 semi-autonomous federal states organised along ethnic lines in Ethiopia, and home mostly to the Tigrayan people who make up about 6 per cent of Ethiopia’s population of more than 110 million.

Hundreds of people were killed in the 11-day-old war. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the national defence force on an offensive against local troops in Tigray last week, after accusing them of attacking federal troops.

The Ethiopian federal government blamed the ruling party in Tigray, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, or TPLF, for the latest attacks.

"The TPLF junta is utilising the last of the weaponry within its arsenals," the government's emergency task force wrote on Twitter.

Two airports in Amhara, also a northern state, were targeted by rocket fire late on Friday, leading to the escalation of violence.

An Ethiopian Airlines worker who did not wish to be identified said flights to both Gondar and Bahir Dar airports had been cancelled after the attacks.

Another resident of the area said the rocket had damaged the airport terminal building. The area was sealed off and firefighting vehicles were parked outside, the resident added.

The Amhara regional state's forces have been fighting alongside their federal counterparts against Tigray's fighters.

The United Nations, the African Union and others are concerned that the fighting could spread to other parts of Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous country, and destabilise the wider Horn of Africa region.

More than 14,500 people have fled into neighbouring Sudan, with the speed of new arrivals "overwhelming the current capacity to provide aid", the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

Ethiopia's Human Rights Commission, appointed by the government but independent, said it was sending a team of investigators to the town of Mai Kadra in Tigray, where Amnesty International this week reported what it said was evidence of mass killings.