Ethiopian refugees celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Tigray People's Liberation Front at Um Raquba refugee camp, Sudan, on Feb. 19.
Photographer: Hussein Ery/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an end to fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and an international investigation of reported atrocities there.
In a statement Saturday, Blinken appealed for a cessation of hostilities between Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the removal of forces from neighboring Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The African Union and regional partners should then address the situation, he said.
Almost four months of conflict in Tigray have left thousands dead and forced millions to flee. Amnesty International last week accused Eritrean troops of massacring civilians in the Ethiopian town of Axum, killings that the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is also investigating.
“We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray,” Blinken said. “We are also deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis.”
Unrest emerged after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and began consolidating power under his new Prosperity Party, sidelining the TPLF, which had been the pre-eminent member of the ruling coalition for decades.
Ethiopia’s War Leads to Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray Region, U.S. Report Says
An internal U.S. government report found that people in Tigray are being driven from their homes in a war begun by Ethiopia, an American ally — posing President Biden’s first major test in Africa.
As a campaign we actively supported the United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) Eritrea Report in 2016 that found Isaias Afwerki and the PFDJ regime guilty of crimes against humanity, committed in Eritrea and state sponsored slavery. Whilst we continue to demand the end of slavery in Eritrea and support peace in our region, today we vehemently oppose the war in Tigray and Isaias’ involvement. Eritrea has no parliament or rule of law and the ruling party has no mandate to govern or represent Eritrea.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States said all soldiers from Eritrea should leave Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region “immediately.”
A State Department spokesperson in an email to The Associated Press cited “credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses.”
“There is also evidence of Eritrean soldiers forcibly returning Eritrean refugees from Tigray to Eritrea,” the spokesperson said.
The statement reflects new pressure by the Biden administration on the government of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and the anchor of the Horn of Africa, and other combatants as the deadly fighting in Tigray nears the three-month mark.
The Abiy-Isaias-Amhara pact was structured to result in either the complete conquest of Tigray or mutual destruction.
Peace in the troubled Horn of Africa region supposedly made a spectacular arrival on 5 June 2018 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia agreed to implement the peace accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea as specified in the Algiers Agreement.
Two weeks later, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea formally reciprocated. Then he went further: he declared that his government’s primary goal would now be “Ethiopia’s stability,” deferring the actual demarcation on the ground to an unspecified time; a reversal of his approach for the previous 16 years.
“There are regional spill-over effects of the conflict, with for instance Eritrean troops being involved in the military operations in Tigray and with Ethiopian troops being withdrawn from Somalia.” Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the Commission
We need humanitarian access to Tigray as urgent first step towards peace in Ethiopia
15/01/2021 – 01:02
15/01/2021 – HR/VP Blog – For more than two months, conflict has been raging in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. The situation is desperate for the local population and the conflict is unsettling dynamics both within Ethiopia and the whole region. I have passed a clear message to the Ethiopian leadership: we are ready to help, but unless there is access for humanitarian aid operators, the EU cannot disburse the planned budget support to the Ethiopian government.
An internal U.S. government report found that people in Tigray are being driven from their homes in a war begun by Ethiopia, an American ally — posing President Biden’s first major test in Africa. 