John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister is aware, this is one of the world's gravest humanitarian and human rights crises. He mentioned that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war, which is absolutely appalling. I welcome the statement by the UN Security Council and the work that went into drafting it but, unfortunately, it did not go far enough because it did not mention the international actors involved in the situation. We see the situation with Eritrea. For the first time on 23 April, there was acknowledgement that Eritrea had troops within the Tigray region. A commitment was made to start withdrawing those troops but that has not happened. I have had a briefing from the former Ethiopian minister for foreign affairs, Berhane Gebre-Christos. He has said that the Eritrean area is being used by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to fly drones into the Tigray area, which has been integral to, and instrumental in, the destruction that has added to the humanitarian crisis and the number of deaths in the area. More action needs to be taken to put pressure on the international actors in this horrific conflict.

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