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| - The UN said Wednesday it was "deeply alarmed" by the rounding up by soldiers of hundreds of displaced civilians from camps in Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray region. The mass arrests were carried out in the town of Shire late Monday by soldiers from Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea, which is also involved in the six-month-old conflict against troops loyal to Tigray's ousted ruling party. The soldiers detained at least 200, and possibly many more, civilians from multiple informal camps in Shire, beating them and snatching their phones before forcing them onto trucks, according to accounts from Amnesty International and witnesses. The UN refugee agency UNHCR is "deeply alarmed" by what happened, spokesperson Elisabeth Haslund told AFP Wednesday. "We understand how traumatic and distressing the situation is, not only for the relatives of the missing youth but the entire (displacement) community in Shire," she said. "What we have observed is that thousands of (displaced) have been fleeing the sites because they don't feel safe and they believe that the spaces are no longer safe." Medical charity Doctors Without Borders also described on Wednesday "the ongoing emptying of these sites as remaining residents are fleeing to seek safety in other areas." The group said on Twitter it was "deeply concerned about the safety of people living in displacement camps in Shire, and the increasingly precarious situation of those fleeing the camps to rural areas where their access to basic resources and medical care is likely to be even more scarce." Tewodros Aregai, interim head of Tigray's Northwestern Zone, told AFP Tuesday the arrests were spurred by reports that anti-government forces had infiltrated the camps. He said screening operations were under way and nine civilians had been released as of Tuesday night. However he did not respond to requests for an update on Wednesday. Haslund said UNHCR had received reports that as many as 700 displaced Tigrayans had been swept up in the operations. Amnesty researcher Fisseha Tekle said Tuesday the victims were mostly male -- some of them teenagers and at least one in his 70s -- and dismissed the notion that they were combatants. Shire is home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, many of whom were forced from their homes in western Tigray, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said "ethnic cleansing" is unfolding. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). He said the move came in response to attacks on federal army camps. Though he vowed the war would be brief, more than six months later fighting continues, reports of atrocities are proliferating and world leaders are warning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe. rcb/fb/gd
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