WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken lobbied Ethiopia’s leader on Tuesday to end hostilities in northern Tigray, citing an “increasing number of credible reports of atrocities and human rights abuses and abuses”.
In a phone call with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Blinken pressured Ethiopia to withdraw external forces from Tigray and an immediate end to the violence, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
The Biden government seeks an end to what he describes as a deepening humanitarian crisis. It was the second time in less than a week that Blinken cited reports of atrocities in the region.
“The secretary urged the Ethiopian government to take immediate and concrete measures to protect civilians, including refugees, and prevent further violence,” Price said in a statement on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “We strongly condemn the murders, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults and other human rights violations and abuses committed by various parties, which several organizations have already denounced.”
Mr. Blinken also asked Mr. Abiy to allow independent international investigations.
An Abiy spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, pointed to a statement made at the end of last month, in which the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described American attempts to intervene in its internal affairs as “regrettable”.
The statement said that the Ethiopian government took responsibility for the safety, protection and well-being of all citizens “very seriously” and that it was “fully committed to carrying out full investigations” on reports of abuse.
But he added that the government has a duty to keep the nation together in the face of “traitorous and divisive forces”.
The Ethiopian military expelled the former local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, from the regional capital in November, after what it described as a surprise attack on its forces in Tigray.
Thousands of people died, hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes and there is a shortage of food, water and medicine in the region of more than five million people.