Ethiopian attacks "may break international law"

A senior US official said on Wednesday that Ethiopian attacks on Eritrean ports and airports could be a violation of international law, because they obstructed relief supplies for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by war. Hugh Parmer, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), told a press conference in Washington
that he was appealing to Ethiopia to comply with the requirements of international law. "You have civilians displaced and without resources. When you cut off the capability of getting supplies to those civilians, then in my judgement... you are in violation of international law and the rules of war," he said, Reuters reported. USAID chief Brady Anderson told
the press conference that the United States would continue to provide assistance to the Horn of Africa, despite the difficulties caused by the war. The United States was sending $11.4 million in additional emergency drought assistance to the region. This included $2.8 million for food and shelter in Eritrea, $1.9 million for Ethiopia, $2 million for Kenya and
$4.4 million for Somalia, Anderson said.