Eritrea troops to leave Tigray soon: envoy

Eritrean troops in Ethiopia's Tigray region are expected to "definitely leave soon", Ethiopia's UN envoy says, after a top UN official told the Security Council that Eritrea's soldiers were using starvation as a weapon of war.

Outgoing UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the 15-member council in a private briefing that "no one should be surprised to see a rerun" of a devastating 1984 famine if violence in Tigray does not stop and Eritrean troops do not withdraw.

"Rape is being used systematically to terrorise and brutalise women and girls. Eritrean soldiers are using starvation as a weapon of war. Displaced people are being rounded up, beaten and threatened," Lowcock told the council, according to diplomats who attended the meeting.

Eritrea's UN mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lowcock's allegation. Eritrea said in April that it had agreed to start withdrawing its troops from Tigray.

In April, Eritrea's UN ambassador, Sophia Tesfamariam, rejected allegations of sexual violence and starvation by Eritrean troops as false and "outrageous."

Ethiopia's UN ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie Amde, who took part in the council discussion, said the Eritrean withdrawal "is a matter of sorting out some technical and procedural issues".

"Our expectation is that they will definitely leave soon," he told reporters after the council briefing on Tuesday.

Lowcock briefed the Security Council just days after an analysis by UN agencies and aid groups found more than 350,000 people in Tigray are suffering famine conditions - the worst catastrophic food crisis in a decade.

Ethiopia's government has disputed the analysis. Amde also said Ethiopia's government had granted unfettered aid access to Tigray and was grateful for international humanitarian help.

The informal council meeting on Tuesday, requested by Ireland, was its sixth private discussion of the crisis since fighting broke out in November between Ethiopia's federal government troops and Tigray's former ruling party. Eritrean troops entered the conflict to support the Ethiopian government.

The violence in Tigray has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than two million from their homes. In April, the Security Council issued a statement of concern about the humanitarian situation.