ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday vowed to sustain his army crackdown on rebels in the restive Ogaden region, as the UN humanitarian chief toured the area to assess aid conditions.
The military launched a crackdown on the region after the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run oil venture in April, killing 77 people.
Aid workers say the crackdown has spurred a humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, many of them fleeing to lawless Somalia.
"We are maintaining our previous strategy of taking legal and proportional measures against the anti-peace elements in the Ogaden," Meles told parliament in the capital Addis Ababa.
"Scores of ONLF and OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) rebels have been killed and wounded from the actions we have taken so far."
The UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes visited the Ogaden capital Jijiga, where he discussed with UN staff and other aid workers ways of boosting relief, a UN statement said.
The envoy also toured Kabridehar area, where the UN recently opened a field office, met with government officials and discussed "the main needs in the area and how to address them, as well as the challenges that affect relief operations."
"This was a valuable opportunity to get an impression for myself of the situation on the ground, and to see the work the UN team has already done to confront the serious humanitarian challenges in the region," Holmes said in the statement.
The United States over the weekend pledged 25 million dollars (17 million euros) in food aid for Ogaden.
ONLF insurgents have accused the army of bombing villages and killing several people in the region, about the same size as Britain with a population of about four million.
Many refugees have since fled to Somalia, saying authorities have imposed a trade blockade, with few goods -- including food -- permitted into the area, leaving them in destitution.
Holmes "plans to raise the issues of access and freedom of commercial activity in his meetings with senior Ethiopian officials, including the prime minister," in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, the statement explained.
The ONLF has repeatedly warned that another "African genocide" was unfolding in the region, but the army flatly rejects the claims and says its campaign does not target civilians but the rebels whom it accuses of "terrorist" activities.
Addis Ababa has expelled Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee for the Red Cross from Ogaden for allegedly meddling in politics, a charge they both deny.
Rights groups said the crackdown resulted in numerous human rights violations in the region and a subsequent UN fact-finding mission called for an independent investigation.
Both sides have claimed killing large numbers of rival fighters in recent months, but the reports cannot be confirmed since the area is out of bounds for journalists and aid workers.
The barren Ogaden region has long been extremely poor, but the discovery of gas and oil has brought new hopes of wealth as well as new causes of conflict.
Between 650,000 and one million civilians -- already affected by recent flooding -- have been displaced by the clampdown, and are in urgent need of food, water and medical supplies.
The UN has dispatched more than 7,300 metric tonnes of food to the five military zones in the region and also plans to deploy 15 mobile health teams including 10 in the area of conflict, the statement added.
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