Meanwhile, the United States, a strong ally of Ethiopia’s government for years, is growing frustrated with the scale of the fighting and widespread reports of sexual violence.
The US Senate has unanimously called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and Secretary of State Antony Blinken says what is happening amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on April 26, 2021
Blinken presses Ethiopia’s Abiy on withdrawal of Eritreans from Tigray — End Hostilities Immediately
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday pressed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for troops from Eritrea involved in the Tigray conflict to be withdrawn “immediately, in full, and in a verifiable manner,” according to a statement.
Blinken said Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces in the Tigray region are contributing to the growing humanitarian disaster and committing human rights abuses, according to a statement by U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price describing a phone call with Abiy.
“The Secretary also stressed the need for all parties to the conflict to end hostilities immediately,” Price said.
Washington said last week that it had seen no evidence of a troop withdrawal promised by both Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Blinken also expressed concern in the call about the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Ethiopia, including the growing risk of famine in the Tigray region, Price said.
✞“Dr Biniam is trying to tell you the atrocities that happened in Tigray. You bringing Metekel And Oromia, why? We Tegaru’s don’t expect anything from you except to remove your killer Fano’s and your priest killer, church looter, and rapist armies out of Tigray.”
☆ A letter from two members of the US House of Representatives is urging the Biden administration to take action on Tigray.
☆ Last week, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed admitted to the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray fighting on the side of his government and committed to their withdrawal from the region, but so far there hasn’t been movement in that direction.
☆ “We condemn in the strongest possible terms reported atrocities and gross violations of human rights committed against civilians, including rape, torture, forced displacements and disappearances, acts of ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, the looting and destruction of medical facilities and restricted access to aid,” Mr Meeks and Mr McCaul wrote in their letter.
☆ “We urge the [Biden] administration to utilise all available tools, including Global Magnitsky authorities and other targeted sanctions, to hold parties accountable for their actions and bring an end to this crisis,” the letter added.
Letter floats Magnitsky sanctions among other measures if the situation doesn’t improve
A letter from two members of the US House of Representatives is urging the Biden administration to take action on Tigray.
Congress placed increased pressure on the Biden administration over the pressing humanitarian situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia this week, urging it to move more forcefully and impose sanctions on the involved parties, including Addis Ababa.
A bipartisan letter from Gregory Meeks, Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and ranking Republican member Michael McCaul was dispatched on Tuesday evening to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen calling for sanctions on those fuelling the fighting in Tigray.
Ongoing fighting since November between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front has left more than 50,000 dead and has displaced hundreds of thousands, according to Ethiopia’s three opposition parties.
The UN estimated on Tuesday that 2.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while human rights organisations have reported mass atrocities, incidents of rape and extrajudicial killings.
Last week, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed admitted to the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray fighting on the side of his government and committed to their withdrawal from the region, but so far there hasn’t been movement in that direction.
Congress is urging the Biden administration to do more in its bid to end the fighting.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms reported atrocities and gross violations of human rights committed against civilians, including rape, torture, forced displacements and disappearances, acts of ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, the looting and destruction of medical facilities and restricted access to aid,” Mr Meeks and Mr McCaul wrote in their letter.
“We urge the [Biden] administration to utilise all available tools, including Global Magnitsky authorities and other targeted sanctions, to hold parties accountable for their actions and bring an end to this crisis,” the letter added.
The Magnitsky sanctions can be used to punish human rights abuses in accordance with the Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act passed by Congress in 2012.
The letter implicates all sides in such abuses and stresses that “additional targeted accountability measures cannot wait”.
It also threatens problems for the future of US-Ethiopia bilateral relations if the situation does not improve.
“While we remain committed to the important bilateral relationship between the United States and Ethiopia, this conflict jeopardises shared political, economic and security priorities,” the two representatives wrote.
The Biden administration delinked in February a suspension of $272 million in aid to Ethiopia for the Nile dam crisis and tied it instead to current “developments”, including the Tigray conflict.
Mr Blinken described the situation in Tigray as “ethnic cleansing” speaking to Congress in March, and on Tuesday he referenced sexual assaults and continued killings in the region.
“The report we’re releasing today shows that the trend lines on human rights continue to move in the wrong direction … We see it in the killings, sexual assaults and other atrocities credibly reported in Ethiopia’s Tigray region,” Mr Blinken said during the launch of the State Department’s annual human rights report.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Centre, argued that Washington is following a gradual approach in ratcheting up the pressure on Ethiopia.
“We [the US] have already suspended our development assistance and our security assistance. Those moves seem to have very little impact in changing [Addis Ababa’s] approach to the conflict in Tigray. The next level of pressure is clearly going to be direct punitive measures,” Mr Hudson told The National.
The letter, addressed to Mr Blinken and copied to Ms Yellen, is an indication of potential sanctions by the departments of State and Treasury.
“This likely will translate into sanctions unless Washington starts to see greater movement on the key issues it is asking for changes on, namely the withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara forces, the launch of the international human rights investigation, unhindered humanitarian access and some sort of domestic political dialogue,” Mr Hudson said.
On the role of Treasury specifically, Mr Hudson, saw the possibility of the US delaying or denying third party aid to Ethiopia.
“The Treasury does two big things that affect US policy on Ethiopia: It administers US sanctions and it controls the US vote at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) … The US has leverage in denying or delaying Ethiopia multilateral financing and assistance and not just bilateral assistance.”
In its report on Tuesday, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 2.2 million people are in need of aid and “approximately 1.3 million children need protective services and safe education in Tigray and neighbouring areas”.
The body expressed concern over reports of violations of human rights and rape in the Tigray region.
“There are more than 500 self-reported rape cases so far,” it said.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on March 2, 2021
Blinken Speaks With Ethiopian Leader About Human Rights Concerns in Tigray
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke with Ethiopia’s prime minister to express concerns over escalating violence and human rights violations in the country’s Tigray region and offer U.S. assistance to help resolve the conflict.
Blinken urged Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “to take immediate, concrete steps to protect civilians, including refugees, and to prevent further violence,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. “Secretary Blinken also asked that the Government of Ethiopia work with the international community to facilitate independent, international, and credible investigations into reported human rights abuses and violations and to hold those responsible accountable.”
The secretary also reiterated calls for the immediate withdrawal from Tigray of Eritrean forces and forces from the region of Amhara in northwest Ethiopia, according to Price.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this week, Ethiopia criticized Blinken for seeking a withdrawal of outside forces from Tigray.
“It should be clear that such matters are the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian government,” Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The statement added that no foreign country should try to “dictate a sovereign nation’s internal affairs.”
Ethiopian federal forces in recent weeks have routed Tigray opposition figures from the region that in November sought to put its own leaders in regional government positions, against the wishes of the central government in the capital Addis Ababa.
Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for reaching a peace agreement with neighboring Eritrea after 16 years of war, has come under international scrutiny for his government’s actions in Tigray.
The United Nations recently said that the humanitarian situation in Tigray is critical amid intensified fighting, with nearly 100,000 displaced and 1.3 million people in need of aid because of the conflict.
The conflict has drawn international concern over the fate of vulnerable civilians and refugees, as well as condemnation over reported atrocities.
Last week, Amnesty International and The Associated Press published new findings that Eritrean forces, allied with the Ethiopian army, instituted a brutal massacre in the Tigray city of Axum in late November, considered one of the holiest cities in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.
Amnesty International said in the report that “many hundreds” were killed in the city by the Eritrean army that engaged in widespread looting and extrajudicial killings, “deliberately and wantonly” shooting at civilians during the worst of the violence.
The AP estimated that between 300 and 800 people were likely killed, and that bodies lay in the streets for days as Eritrean forces barred residents from collecting their loved ones.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the U.S. would raise the issue of alleviating humanitarian concerns in Ethiopia this month under its leadership of the U.N. Security Council.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also responded to the massacre reports calling for “decisive action” by the Biden administration to hold those accountable for any atrocities committed.
“The horrors detailed in the reports coming out of the Tigray region are incredibly concerning and I am looking into them further,” he said in a statement last week.
“For far too long, the government of Ethiopia and other armed actors have blocked access by journalists and independent monitors to investigate these chilling accounts. I urge the Biden Administration to take decisive action to hold those accountable for any atrocities committed.”
“Dr Biniam is trying to tell you the atrocities that happened in Tigray. You bringing Metekel And Oromia, why? We Tegaru’s don’t expect anything from you except to remove your killer Fano’s and your priest killer, church looter, and rapist armies out of Tigray.”
