By Dawit Endeshaw, NAIROBI Kenya
A senior U.S. official said on
Saturday that Eritrean troops are still in Ethiopia although they have moved
back the border, contradicting Ethiopian authorities who say the Eritreans have
already left.A building is seen through a bullet hole in a window of the Africa Hotel in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia
Eritrean troops fought
alongside the Ethiopian military and allied militias in the two-year conflict
that pitted the Ethiopian government against rebellious forces in the northern
region of Tigray.
In November, however, the
Ethiopia government and the Tigray forces signed an agreement to end the
hostilities. That agreement mandated the withdraw of all foreign forces from
Tigray.
"With respect to
Eritreans we understand they have moved back to the border and they have been
asked to leave," U.S. Ambassaor to the United Nations, Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, said at a news conference during a visit to the Kenyan
capital Nairobi.
She did not provide any
evidence or source for this assessment. Eritrea's information minister Yemane
Gebremeskel did not respond to a Reuters' request for comment.
The Tigray war, which begun in
November 2020, resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and forced millions to
flee their homes. The possible continuing presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray
thus has been seen as a key obstacle to effective implementation of the deal.
A senior Ethiopia military
officer briefing foreign officials on Saturday denied there were any Eritrean
troops in the country.
"There is no other
security force in the Tigray region except the FDRE Defense Forces," Major
General Teshome Gemechu said, using an acronym for the Federal Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia.
A spokesperson for the
Tigrayan forces, Getachew Reda,
dismissed claims that the
Eritrean troops had left Tigray and said "thousands" were still
there.
Ethiopian government
spokesperson Legesse Tulu, Redwan Hussein, national security advisor to the
prime minister, and Colonel Getnet Adane, spokesperson to Ethiopian Army also
did not respond to requests for comment on claims by Thomas-Greenfield and
Getachew.
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