The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed its sorrow at the murder of Spanish national María Hernández, along with two other workers of the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the scene of conflict in recent months.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of María Hernández, aged 35 and originally from Madrid, and conveyed its condolences to her relatives. The head of the department, Arancha González Laya, also expressed on her Twitter account her “great sadness” at the murder and sent “heartfelt condolences” to the families and friends of the three aid workers.
Ministry sources indicated that the Spanish Embassy in Ethiopia is in contact with the country’s authorities to try to clarify what happened and said that “all the necessary administrative steps are being taken to speed up the repatriation” of the body of the Spanish aid worker as much as possible.
Along with Hernández, one of MSF’s emergency coordinators in Tigray, the Ethiopians Yohannes Halefom Reda, 31, a coordination assistant, and Tedros Gebremariam, a 31-year-old driver, also died.
“We lost contact with them and the car they were travelling in yesterday afternoon and this morning the vehicle was found empty and, a few metres away, their lifeless bodies,” MSF said in a statement in which it “strongly” condemned the attack.
