The United States accuses all parties to the Ethiopian conflict of committing war crimes

March 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has formally determined this Monday that the armed forces of all parties to the Ethiopian conflict have committed war crimes.

“I have determined that members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, the Eritrean Defense Forces, the Amhara (region) forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces committed heinous crimes,” he said. following the publication of the State Department’s 2022 Human Rights Report.

Blinken traveled to Ethiopia in the middle of this month in his first visit since the declaration of a truce in the devastating conflict in the Tigray region, where he met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda, who has recently been elected president of the region.

“As I spoke to both parties during my visit, in order to build lasting peace, there must be recognition of the atrocities committed by all parties, as well as accountability along with reconciliation,” Blinken explained.

Thus, the Secretary of State, who has “condemned the atrocities”, has welcomed “with satisfaction the commitments to pursue transitional justice”.

“The conflict in northern Ethiopia was devastating,” he denounced, while listing a series of crimes such as the murder of civilians, sexual violence, forced displacement and ethnic attacks.

In this sense, he added that “many of these actions were not random or a mere by-product of the war. They were calculated and deliberate.”

“These steps — recognition, accountability, reconciliation — are key to breaking the cycle of ethnic and political violence that has gripped Ethiopia and prevented it from reaching its unlimited potential for so long,” Blinken said.

For this reason, it has urged the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, as well as the TPLF, to hold those responsible to account. He has also offered Addis Ababa US cooperation “as it honestly confronts its past abuses, is held accountable for the harm done to its citizens, and moves toward a future of lasting peace.”

The conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020 after a TPLF attack on the main army base, located in Mekelle, after which the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group.

The outbreak of the fighting came after months of tensions at the political and administrative level, including the TPLF’s refusal to recognize an electoral postponement and its decision to hold regional elections on the sidelines of Addis Ababa.

The TPLF accused Abiy of stoking tensions since he came to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within the coalition that has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, the ethnically based Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it viewed as an attempt to undermine his influence.