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US Concerned About Increasing Political, Ethnic Polarization in Ethiopia


Children displaced by the conflict now live with their families at an elementary school in the town of Abi Adi, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 11, 2021.
Children displaced by the conflict now live with their families at an elementary school in the town of Abi Adi, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 11, 2021.

The United States is deeply concerned about increasing political and ethnic polarization throughout Ethiopia, the U.S. State Department said Friday, adding that Washington will work with allies to secure a cease-fire in the Tigray region, provide assistance and hold human rights abusers accountable.

Jeffrey Feltman, the newly appointed U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, returned from his first trip to the region Thursday, where he visited Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands more forced from their homes in the Tigray region since November, when the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on Ethiopian forces. Ethiopian troops and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea have been accused of massacres in their fight against the rebel group.

Ethiopia says it is committed to investigating human rights violations and both countries have promised a withdrawal of Eritrean troops.

"The atrocities being perpetrated in Tigray and the scale of the humanitarian emergency are unacceptable," the State Department said in a statement, adding that Feltman underscored to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki the imperative that Eritrean troops withdraw from Ethiopia immediately.

"The crisis in Tigray is also symptomatic of a broader set of national challenges that have imperiled meaningful reforms," the statement said.

The office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government's efforts to crush the TPLF rebellion have unleashed an ethnic witch hunt across the country, according to a Reuters investigation this month, which found Tigrayans have been arrested, harassed, sacked or suspended from their jobs, or seen their bank accounts temporarily frozen.

Feltman discussed with Abiy and other Ethiopian leaders the need for "an inclusive effort to build national consensus on the country’s future that is based on respect for the human and political rights of all Ethiopians," the State Department said.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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