Ethiopia’s government has accused the United States of taking a “partisan” approach by alleging that its forces, and Eritrean troops, had committed war crimes during the two-year conflict in Tigray.
“The US statement is inflammatory,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, a day after Washington accused all parties to the conflict of committing war crimes but singled out Ethiopian, Eritrean and regional Amhara forces for crimes against humanity, without mentioning forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
According to Al Jazeera, last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his first visit to Ethiopia since a November 2022 peace deal between the federal government and Tigrayan rebels. On Monday, after returning to Washington, he made a forceful call for accountability.
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the conflict, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 600,000. There were also reports of rapes, massacres of civilians, forcible deportations and ethnic cleansing.
