By Doina Chiacu, WASHINGTON USA
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Tuesday pressed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to end hostilities in the northern Tigray region, citing a “growing number of credible reports of atrocities and human rights violations and abuses.”
In a statement, State Department spokesman
Ned Price said Blinken pressed Abiy in a phone call to withdraw outside forces
from Tigray, including troops from Ethiopia’s Amhara region and from Eritrea,
and for an immediate end to violence.
The United Nations Security Council is likely
to discuss the situation in Tigray in a closed-door meeting later this week,
diplomats said. The United States is president of the 15-member council for
March.
The six-week-old Biden administration is
seeking an end to hostilities in Tigray and what it describes as a deepening
humanitarian crisis. It was the second time in less than a week that Blinken
has cited reports of atrocities in the region.
“The secretary urged the Ethiopian government
to take immediate, concrete steps to protect civilians, including refugees, and
to prevent further violence,” Price said in the statement.
Speaking to reporters, Price said: “We
strongly condemn the killings, the forced removals and displacement, the sexual
assaults, and other human rights violations and abuses by several parties that
multiple organizations, have, now reported.”
Blinken also asked that Abiy allow credible
independent international investigations.
Abiy’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, referred
Reuters to a Feb. 28 statement in which Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs
called U.S. attempts to intervene in its internal affairs “regrettable”.
Ethiopia’s government takes its
responsibility for the safety, security, and well-being of all citizens “very
seriously” and is “fully committed to undertake thorough investigations” into alleged
abuses and bring perpetrators to justice, that statement said. But it added the
government had a duty to hold the nation together in the face of “treasonous
and divisive forces.”U.S. Secretary of State,
Anthony Blinken
Ethiopia’s military ousted the former local
ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), from the regional
capital Mekelle in November, after what it described as a surprise assault on
its forces in Tigray.
Thousands of people have died, hundreds of
thousands have been forced from homes and there are shortages of food, water
and medicine around the region of more than 5 million people.
The government has said that most fighting
has stopped in Tigray but has acknowledged isolated incidents of shooting.
Both sides deny their forces have committed
atrocities, and blame other forces for the killing of civilians.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied the
involvement of Eritrean troops in the conflict alongside Ethiopian forces,
although dozens of witnesses, diplomats and an Ethiopian general have reported
their presence.
Blinken voiced grave concern about reports of
atrocities in Tigray on Saturday, when he called on the African Union and other
international partners to work with the United States to address the crisis. -
Reuters
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