US calls on Ethiopia to end ongoing conflict in Tigray

Top Ethiopian diplomat to the US resigns in “protest of genocidal war” hours after the US secretary of state urges all security forces in Tigray to vacate the region amidst “ethnic cleansing” claims and the US ambassador to Ethiopia’s visit to the site of the on-going conflict.

Deputy chief of the mission to the US at embassy resigns “in protest of the genocidal war” as US secretary of state increases pressure on Abiy

CAPE TOWN, March 11 (ANA) – A senior Ethiopian diplomat to the US resigned in “protest of genocidal war,” hours after the US Secretary of State urged all security forces in Tigray to vacate the region amid “ethnic cleansing” claims and the US ambassador to Ethiopia’s visit to the site of the on-going conflict.

On Wednesday, the deputy chief of the mission to the US at the Ethiopian Embassy, Berhane Kidanemariam, resigned in protest due to atrocities in the East African country’s northern restive region, Tigray, according to a statement from Kidanemariam.

Kidanemariam’s statement reads, “I have loved serving as a diplomat for my country but I cannot do so at the expense of my values, and certainly not at the expense of my people. There is a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them.”

“I resign from my post in protest of the genocidal war in Tigray, and in protest of all the repression and destruction the government is inflicting on the rest of Ethiopia,” he adds.

Kidanemariam has further criticised the prime minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed for leading “Ethiopia down a dark path toward destruction and disintegration”, restricting press freedom, continuously postponing democratic elections, and extrajudicial arrests of political leaders.

He says that Abiy “has deliberately exacerbated hatred between different groups”.

Hours before Kidanemariam’s resignation on Wednesday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken did not mince his words in his call to end the conflict and human rights abuses when he testified before the house of representatives committee on foreign affairs in Washington, Al Jazeera reported.

Blinken called for all security forces to vacate the conflict-hit Tigray citing credible reports of potential crimes against humanity, and to be replaced by security forces “that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray, or commit acts of ethnic cleansing which we’ve seen in western Tigray”.

“We have, as you know, forces from Eritrea over there, and we have forces from an adjoining [Ethiopian] region, Amhara, that are there. They need to come out,” Blinken said.

Kidanemariam has also specifically acknowledged Eritrean forces involved in the Tigray conflict in his statement.

“The government used its full military power, including ground and air assaults, against the Tigray region. Moreover, the government invited foreign forces from Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates (with the use of drone warfare) to attack its own people,” Kidanemariam said.

Two reports were released in a space of a week earlier this month regarding massacres at Maryam Dengelat church and Axum city in Tigray, which occurred in late November 2020 that implicates Eritrean forces in the atrocities which unfolded.

However, the Eritrean government has denied these claims since their military has not been in Ethiopia during the Tigray conflict, with the Eritrean ambassador to the UK calling the allegations “fabricated” and utterly false,” BCC reported on Thursday.

Blinken, Kidanemariam, numerous rights groups and Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), have all called for an international investigation into what occurred in Tigray.

On Wednesday March 3, Blinken provide an insight into his foreign policy as US Secretary of State by stating “distinctions between ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ policy have fallen away”.

Furthermore, a day prior to the above address, Blinken conducted a phone call to the Ethiopian prime minister where he reiterated the urgent need to end the conflict, protect civilians and the US readiness to assist in resolving conflict.

On Wednesday, prior to Blinken and Kidanemariam’s statements, the US Embassy in Ethiopia announced that delegates will travel to Tigray.

The Embassy stated the US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Geeta Pasi, will be apart of the envoy and reiterated its readiness to help Ethiopians in need.

It was not mentioned which parts of Tigray the US envoy will visit.

A total of US$81 million was the total US government humanitarian funding to Ethiopia, USAID’s Factsheet #1 read that was released on February 19.

The ongoing conflict in Tigray has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, with the UN’s International Organisation For Migration (IOM) revealing on Tuesday, that over 131,000 civilians are internally displaced people (IDP) recorded in the 39 accessible parts of northern Ethiopia.

The data by IOM, which was funded by USAID, EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid, and Germany, is the first of its kind since the northern region descended into chaos at the beginning of November 2020.

The ruling government party of Tigray, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was accused of attacking the federal Ethiopian miliary base located in Tigray which has been stationed there for more than two decades, Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia stated.

A military offensive and state of emergency was then launched by the Ethiopian federal government and was said to have been completed on November 28, 2020 by the prime minister himself.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay