The United States has expressed concerns over a recent report of ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on natives and has called for an end to unlawful detentions based on ethnicity.
The US in a statement by the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, “notes with the utmost alarm that thousands of Ethiopians of Tigrayan ethnicity reportedly continue to be detained arbitrarily in life-threatening conditions in western Tigray,”
“We are deeply troubled by the report’s finding that these acts amount to ethnic cleansing,” Price said in the statement.
Slamreportafrica.com reported earlier in the week that two international human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, accused Ethiopian forces from the Amhara region of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the neighboring Tigray region.
The United States also called for the immediate release of any remaining detainees and called on relevant authorities to grant international monitors access to all detention facilities.
“We urge the Government of Ethiopia to cooperate with the UN Commission of Experts on Human Rights in Ethiopia.” The statement reads.
Washington also reiterated her “firm position that there must be credible investigations into and accountability for atrocities committed by any party to the conflict as part of any lasting solution to the crisis”
The Tigray region is the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia. The Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Formerly known as Region 1, its capital and largest city are Mekelle. Tigray is the fifth-largest by area, the fifth-most populous, and the fifth-most densely populated of the 11 regional states in Ethiopia. 96 percent of Tigrayans are Orthodox Christian.
The region has seen some of the worst violence in the war, which has pitted Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and its allies from the Amhara region against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s government before Abiy’s rise to power in 2018.