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“Nothing during or after the end of the main law enforcement operation in Tigray can be identified or defined by any standard as directed and intentional ethnic cleansing against someone in the region,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. release.
“That is why the Ethiopian government is vehemently opposed to such accusations.”
The ethnic cleansing accusations amount to “a completely unfounded and false verdict against the Ethiopian government,” he said, accusing Washington of “exaggerating things out of proportion.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that ethnic cleansing has occurred in western Tigray, the first time that a senior official in the international community has openly described Tigray’s alleged atrocities as such.
Blinken told the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee that the US is ‘seeing very credible reports of ongoing human rights abuses and atrocities’ in Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia. which is the foundation of a party that dominated Ethiopian politics for decades before the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Leaders of that party, known by its acronym TPLF, are in hiding as federal forces and their allies _ including Eritrean fighters _ hunt down fighters loyal to the local administration in Tigray.
The conflict began in November, when Abiy sent government troops to Tigray after an attack on federal military installations.
No one knows how many thousands of civilians have died in the conflict.
While the Ethiopian government says a federal investigation into the alleged crimes is underway, critics say the government cannot effectively investigate itself. They want an international investigation, ideally led by the United Nations. The latest government statement suggested opening an investigation with outside groups.
If necessary, the statement said, the government “will carry out joint investigations with the relevant bodies” of the international community, including the African Union.
Blinken has urged Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make peace with neighboring Eritrea, to end hostilities in Tigray. Eritrean troops, as well as fighters from Amhara, an Ethiopian region bordering Tigray, ‘need to get out,’ Blinken said in his testimony on Wednesday, adding that the region needs’ a force that does not abuse the human rights of the people from Tigray or commit acts of ethnic cleansing, which we have seen in West Tigray. That has to stop. ‘
Reports from The Associated Press and Amnesty International detail accounts of atrocities committed by Ethiopian and allied forces against residents of Tigray. Ethiopia’s federal government and regional officials in Tigray maintain that each other’s governments are illegitimate after the pandemic disrupted elections.
Humanitarian officials have warned that increasing numbers of people may be starving in Tigray. Fighting broke out on the brink of harvest in the largely agricultural region and sent untold numbers of people fleeing their homes. Witnesses have described widespread looting by Eritrean soldiers, as well as the burning of crops.
The humanitarian situation in Tigray “remains extremely worrying, with the conflict continuing to drive population displacement and reports that some villages are completely emptied,” the UN humanitarian office said in its latest assessment. “Disruptions in basic services, such as communications, banking and electricity, continue to pose serious challenges to humanitarian efforts, while putting people at greater risk.”
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