In Ethiopia, just ten days after the resumption of air links with Tigray, new restrictions are now imposed on passengers wishing to travel between Mekele and Addis Ababa. Since Sunday January 8, many passengers say they have been prevented from boarding because they do not meet the newly imposed criteria.
With our regional correspondent, Florence Morice
If Ethiopian Airlines has not provided any explanation of these restrictions, nor any notice, it is therefore on their way to Mekele airport on Sunday to board for Addis Ababa that many passengers were turned away, like this young woman Mehret Okubay Berehe.
” There was an agent at the entrance to the main airport building, explaining to young people – the majority of passengers in fact – that they could not travel and that boarding was now prohibited for people between 16 and 65 years old. Only minors, the elderly or their companions or finally people with a document proving that they had a medical emergency could travel. “, she testifies.
Mehret had an important medical appointment, but no document to prove it. She couldn’t board.
The Tigray authorities, for their part, told the local press that they were not behind this measure.
For ten days, the airport of Mekele as well as the federal institutions of Tigray have come back under the control of the Ethiopian federal police. The latter redeployed there in application of the peace agreement signed in Pretoria.
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