Ethiopia rejects a report by UN experts and accuses them of maintaining “reckless behavior”

He stresses that “the resolution that established the commission and its work are politically motivated”

Sep. 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Government of Ethiopia has rejected this Friday the recent report of the Human Rights experts appointed by the United Nations to analyze the situation arising from the conflict in the Tigray region (north), plunged into a conflict since November 2020.

“The commission does not have the competence or correct appreciation of the conflict unleashed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), in violation of the humanitarian truce,” the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said.

Thus, he stressed that “the commission cannot assume a mandate to rule on matters of peace and security” and added that “its call to take action against Ethiopia by the UN Security Council only shows reckless behavior”.

The Foreign Ministry has emphasized that this appeal “reaffirms the (Ethiopian) government’s claim that the resolution establishing the commission and the commission’s work are politically motivated.”

“The commission has turned Human Rights into a weapon to exert political pressure and has exposed its true intentions, closing all doors to cooperation with the Government”, he said, while stressing that Addis Ababa “will continue to respect and guarantee the respect for human rights and bringing violators to justice”.

The statement was published a week after the members of the commission stated that “given the seriousness of the situation” due to the upturn in fighting between the Army and the TPLF despite the humanitarian truce, it is necessary that the Security Council “Keep the situation in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa on your agenda.”

He also stressed that “Eritrean troops are participating in the hostilities” and warned of the risk that the war “expands to other states.” Shortly before, the TPLF had denounced new military operations by Eritrea and Ethiopia in northwestern Tigray.

For its part, the Government of Ethiopia accused the group at the end of August of “closing all options for peace” in the north of the country and defended the military operations launched against the TPLF after accusing it of violating the humanitarian truce and expanding the conflict to the Amhara and Afar regions.

The conflict in Ethiopia erupted after an attack by the TPLF against the Army’s main base, located in Mekelle, after which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group after months of political and administrative tensions. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.

The TPLF has accused Abiy of stirring up 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 ethnically based coalition that had governed Ethiopia since 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, seeing them as an attempt to undermine his influence.