(3 minutes read)
· In a significant development, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken termed the violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as “ethnic cleansing”
· However, the Ethiopian side was quick in rejecting that assertion and called it a propaganda statement. Blinken pressed for a probe and the exit of Eritrean troops
· Ethiopia launched a military campaign in Tigray in November after blaming the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), for attacks on army camps and military installations
In a significant development, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken termed the violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as “ethnic cleansing”. However, the Ethiopian side was quick in rejecting that assertion and called it a propaganda statement. Blinken pressed for a probe and the exit of Eritrean troops.
Blinken said “acts of ethnic cleansing” had taken place in western Tigray and called for stopping them and to pin full accountability on people perpetrating the crime. However, in an interview to a wire agency, Amhara spokesman Gizachew Muluneh dismissed reports of ethnic cleansing and large-scale displacement as propaganda. He said a few might have been displaced and the claim of ethnic cleansing was a propaganda statement. Ethiopia is made up of 10 semi-autonomous federal states organised along ethnic lines. Ethnic violence has soared in recent years.
Ethiopia launched a military campaign in Tigray in November after blaming the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), for attacks on army camps and military installations.
Earlier, the newly appointed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Ethiopia to allow an international investigation into alleged atrocities in the northern region. The Secretary of State in a tweet said that the US was “committed to providing life-saving assistance to vulnerable populations in Ethiopia”.
Access to the region has been limited to aid agencies and foreign bodies. The United Nations recently said that more than 131,000 people were displaced in 29 accessible locations in Tigray. Earlier this week, Tigrayan officials accused forces from neighboring Amhara of kicking thousands of people off land in western Tigray — a part of the region that ethnic Amharas claim rightfully belongs to them.
