G7 COUNTRIES CONCERNED OVER REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ETHIOPIA’S TIGRAY

Fri 02 April 2021:

The foreign ministers of the G7 countries are “strongly concerned” over recent reports of human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law in Ethiopia’s restive border region of Tigray, according to a statement issued on Friday.

“We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union are strongly concerned about recent reports on human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law in Tigray,” the statement, which was carried by the UK’s foreign office, read.

The G7 foreign ministers called on all parties to exercise the “utmost restraint” and expressed their condemnation of the killing of civilians and “indiscriminate” shelling attacks.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said one week ago that Eritrean troops would leave the Tigray region, and the G7 foreign ministers said that they welcome this announcement.

Rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, have accused the Eritrean armed forces of killing dozens of civilians in the Tigray town of Axum during the recent hostilities in the region.

The Ethiopian armed forces launched a military operation in the Tigray region this past November after the government in Addis Ababa accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional ruling party, of attacking a military installation.

On November 28, Ahmed said that the military operation against the TPLF had come to a successful conclusion after government troops had taken “full control” of Mekelle, the regional capital.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 60,000 Ethiopians fled the fighting and crossed the border into neighboring Sudan.