BIDEN SAYS DEEPLY CONCERNED OVER VIOLENCE IN ETHIOPIA

Thu 27 May 2021:

President Joe Biden said he is deeply concerned about violence in Ethiopia so US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman will return to the region for consultations with government officials in the region.

“I am deeply concerned by the escalating violence and the hardening of regional and ethnic divisions in multiple parts of Ethiopia,” Biden said in a press release on Wednesday. “The large-scale human rights abuses taking place in Tigray, including widespread sexual violence, are unacceptable and must end.”

Feltman will return to Ethiopia to lead a renewed diplomatic effort to help restore order in the Tigray, and to help resolve regional concerns over water rights and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Biden called for a ceasefire between the warring parties and urged Eritrean and Amhara forces to withdraw from the Tigray region.

Ethiopian and Eritrean forces must allow immediate humanitarian access to the region in order to prevent widespread famine, Biden added.

The Tigray Region in the north of Ethiopia has been experiencing severe food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a locust outbreak, and the ongoing regional conflict.

Fighting in the province of Tigray broke out in November after the Ethiopian government accused the local ruling party Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of attacking a regional military base to hijack weapons and arm the anti-government militia. In late 2020, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said that Eritrea, which was technically at war with Ethiopia until 2018, had sent troops across the border in support of Ethiopian government forces.

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