The US says it has determined that all warring parties in the brutal war in northern Ethiopia have committed war crimes.
Speaking on Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who visited Ethiopia last week and met Ethiopian government and Tigrayan officials, said his department had carefully reviewed the laws and the facts to determine the crimes.
He accused members of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, Eritrean Defence Forces, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara forces of committing war crimes during the two-year bloody conflict.
He also blamed the Ethiopian and Eritrean Defence forces as well as Amhara forces of committing crimes against humanity including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence and persecution.
“Many of these actions were not random or a mere by product of war. They were calculated and deliberate,” he said.
He urged the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as the TPLF to hold those responsible for these atrocities accountable.
None of the accused forces have commented yet on the latest accusation.
A landmark cessation of hostilities agreement was signed in November 2022 between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF, ending the conflict believed to have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council is expected to hear a briefing of a Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, an independent group mandated to investigate the reported human rights crimes.
The BBC
