The United States has determined that Ethiopian and Eritrean armed forces, as well as Tigrayan rebels, committed war crimes during two years of bloody conflict in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, U.S. diplomatic chief Antony Blinken said Monday.
“We urge the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the TPLF, to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities,” the U.S. secretary of state told reporters, days after his visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “Many of these acts were not committed at random or as an indirect consequence of war. They were calculated and deliberate,” said the U.S. Secretary of State to the press, a few days after his visit to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
He said the State Department had conducted a “thorough investigation of the law and the facts” and concluded that the war crimes were committed by all parties, including forces from the neighboring Amhara region. “We urge the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the TPLF, to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities,” he emphasized.
The exact toll is difficult to assess, but the United States estimates that some 500,000 people died during the conflict. During his visit to Ethiopia last week, Mr. Blinken did not explicitly mention war crimes or crimes against humanity, but called for “reconciliation and accountability” for the atrocities in Tigray. He met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and representatives of the rebel authorities in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.
Both parties promised to implement the peace agreement signed on November 2 in Pretoria, which put an end to two years of deadly conflict, he insisted. Asked why he had not made this determination on the spot, Blinken said it was “appropriate” to do so on the occasion of the release of the State Department’s annual human rights report on Monday.