MORE than 52,000 Tigrayans are believed to have been killed in an Ethiopian government military offensive, opposition parties said today, warning that people will be shocked by what is revealed when the region is opened to scrutiny.

Hailu Kebede, foreign affairs spokesman of the Salsay Woyane Tigray party, said that data had been collected from witnesses in each region of the country.

“We have thousands of names,” he said, adding that one of his relatives had been killed while he hid on the outskirts of the Tigrayan capital Mekel, which fell to Ethiopian government forces in November.

“This is the least documented war. The world will apologise to the people of Tigray,” Mr Hailu predicted, “but it will be too late.”

Tigray has largely been cut off from the  outside world since the federal government launched a military offensive in December last year. 

Aid has been prevented from reaching the northern state, with the Red Cross warning on Tuesday that more than 10,000 people could starve to death without urgent humanitarian intervention.

United Nations high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet has previously raised concerns over the ethnic profiling of Tigrayans, including in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The European Union and the United States demanded that neighbouring Eritrea withdraw its troops from the region, saying that they are “reportedly committing atrocities and exacerbating ethnic violence.”

The conflict erupted after Tigray held elections last September that were deemed illegal by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. 

The Nobel Peace Prize winner responded by launching an offensive to crush the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, which ruled the region.

A number of its leading officials have been killed and hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans have been displaced.