AFP calls on the Ethiopian authorities to release a man who was arrested while he was serving as a translator for a team of its journalists reporting in the Tigray region, the scene of a military operation launched in early November by Addis Ababa against the then regional authorities.
Category: Resource
BBC: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: BBC reporter Girmay Gebru detained by military
The BBC reporter in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit region of Tigray has been detained by the military.
Witnesses say Girmay Gebru, who works for BBC Tigrinya, was taken along with four other people from a café in the regional capital, Mekelle.
Mr Girmay is reported to have been taken to a military camp in Mekelle.
The BBC is yet to establish the reason for his detention, but has expressed its concern to the Ethiopian authorities.
A local journalist, Tamirat Yemane, and two translators – Alula Akalu and Fitsum Berhane, who were working for the Financial Times and the AFP news agency, respectively – have also been detained in recent days.
Yahoo: Ethiopia’s Tigray crisis: Blinken says US concerned about atrocities
The US has condemned reported atrocities in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit northern region of Tigray, urging the African Union to help resolve the “deteriorating situation.”
VOA: US Report Documents Atrocities, Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray, NY Times Says
An internal U.S. government report obtained by The New York Times says that Ethiopia is conducting “a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” under the cover of war in the Tigray region, an area largely controlled by Amhara militias in the northern part of the country.
The Times says the report, written earlier in February, describes “in stark terms a land of looted houses and deserted villages where tens of thousands of people are unaccounted for.”
AA: Eritrean, Amhara forces must withdraw from Tigray: US
“We strongly condemn the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The top diplomat voiced deep concern about the worsening humanitarian crisis and said those responsible for the violence must be held accountable.
THE WEEK: An eyewitness account of atrocities in Tigray
“We were scared,” he said. “I could see the pilots, the planes from my room. They came at least 30 times. I was sleeping so I had to fall from the bed. I was taking a nap. I didn’t know where to go.”
USA Today: ‘Gravely concerned’: Secretary of State Blinken condemns reported abuse in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
The US has condemned reported atrocities in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit northern region of Tigray, urging the African Union to help resolve the “deteriorating situation.”
State Department: Atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
The immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray are essential first steps. They should be accompanied by unilateral declarations of cessation of hostilities by all parties to the conflict and a commitment to permit unhindered delivery of assistance to those in Tigray. The United States is committed to working with the international community to achieve these goals. To that end, USAID will deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team to Ethiopia to continue delivering life-saving assistance.
INDEPENDENT: Ethiopia’s war leads to ethnic cleansing in Tigray region, US report says
Fighters and officials from the neighbouring Amhara region of Ethiopia, who entered Tigray in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are “deliberately and efficiently rendering western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organised use of force and intimidation”, the report says.
Rep. McCaul Responds to Reports of Ethnic Cleansing and Massacres of Civilians in Tigray Region
House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul has released the following statement in response to reports of ethnic cleansing and mass violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.