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WASHINGTON
Ethiopian officials and militiamen are carrying out a systematic ethnic cleansing operation in the state of Tigray, according to a confidential US government report.
The report obtained by the New York Times documents a land of ransacked homes and abandoned villages where tens of thousands of people have disappeared.
Written earlier this month, it notes that officials and fighters from neighboring Amhara state entered Tigray in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
They are “deliberately and efficiently making western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through organized use of force and intimidation,” the report says. “Whole villages were severely damaged or completely wiped out.”
Amnesty International said in a report the previous Friday that Eritrean troops fighting in Tigray have systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the northern city of Axum from 28 to 29 November 2020.
The troops opened fire in the streets and carried out house-to-house raids in a massacre that may constitute a crime against humanity.
The situation was discussed by US President Joe Biden and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during a phone call on Thursday.
“Presidents Biden and Kenyatta discussed the deterioration of the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the need to prevent further loss of life and ensure humanitarian access,” according to a White House statement.
The Tigray region has been the scene of fighting since November, when Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), whom he accused of attacking federal army camps.
Government troops took control of the regional capital Mekele in late November, but the TPLF vowed to fight and clashes have persisted in the Horn of Africa country, hampering efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.
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