NAIROBI: Ethiopia has rejected US allegations there has been ethnic cleansing in Tigray, pushing back against the latest criticism of its military operation in its northern region by the new administration in Washington.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he wanted to see Eritrean forces and those from the Amhara region replaced in Tigray by security forces that will respect human rights and not “commit acts of ethnic cleansing.”
“(The accusation) is a completely unfounded and spurious verdict against the Ethiopian government,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday.
“Nothing during or after the end of the main law enforcement operation in Tigray can be identified or defined by any standards as a targeted, intentional ethnic cleansing against anyone in the region,” it said.
“The Ethiopian government vehemently opposes such accusations.”
Ethiopia’s federal army ousted the former regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), from the capital Mekelle in November, after what it said was a surprise assault on its forces in the region bordering Eritrea.
The government has said that most fighting has ceased but has acknowledged there are still isolated incidents of shooting.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied the involvement of Eritrean troops in the fighting alongside Ethiopian forces, although dozens of witnesses, diplomats and an Ethiopian general have reported their presence.
Thousands of people have died following the fighting, hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes and there are shortages of food, water and medicine in Tigray, a region of more than 5 million people.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said it was ready to work with international human rights experts to conduct investigations on allegations of abuses.
“The Ethiopian government has demonstrated its readiness to engage positively and constructively with all the relevant regional and international stakeholders in responding to the serious allegations of human rights abuses and crimes,” it said.
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Ethiopia rejects allegations of ethnic cleansing in Tigray
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Ethiopia rejects allegations of ethnic cleansing in Tigray
- Ethiopia’s federal army ousted the former regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), from the capital Mekelle in November, after what it said was a surprise assault on its forces in the region bordering Eritrea
Trump says Vance to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan in February
WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance will travel to Armenia and Azerbaijan in February, President Donald Trump said on Friday, with the intention to “build on” recent peace efforts.
Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a US-brokered agreement in August to end a decades-long conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan most recently took over in 2023.
“I want to thank President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia for honoring the Peace Agreement we signed last August,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“In February, Vice President Vance will travel to both Countries to build on our Peace efforts, and advance the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” he said, referring to a transit corridor created as part of the agreement.
The corridor through Armenia connects Azerbaijan, which is to its east, to its Nakhchivan exclave to the west.
The agreement gives the United States development rights to the corridor.
Trump said the United States would “strengthen our strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, a beautiful Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation with Armenia” and organize “Deals for our Great Semiconductor Makers.”
He also mentioned “the sale of Made in the USA. Defense Equipment, such as body armor and boats, and more, to Azerbaijan.”
The US State Department said this month Armenia would give the United States a nearly three-quarters stake in the development of the corridor, an agreement Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed as a “model for the world.”
Rubio met with Azerbaijan’s foreign minister this week and commended the country’s recent shipments of fuel to Armenia as evidence of a “continued commitment to the historic peace deal,” the State Department said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a US-brokered agreement in August to end a decades-long conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan most recently took over in 2023.
“I want to thank President Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Pashinyan of Armenia for honoring the Peace Agreement we signed last August,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“In February, Vice President Vance will travel to both Countries to build on our Peace efforts, and advance the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” he said, referring to a transit corridor created as part of the agreement.
The corridor through Armenia connects Azerbaijan, which is to its east, to its Nakhchivan exclave to the west.
The agreement gives the United States development rights to the corridor.
Trump said the United States would “strengthen our strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, a beautiful Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation with Armenia” and organize “Deals for our Great Semiconductor Makers.”
He also mentioned “the sale of Made in the USA. Defense Equipment, such as body armor and boats, and more, to Azerbaijan.”
The US State Department said this month Armenia would give the United States a nearly three-quarters stake in the development of the corridor, an agreement Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed as a “model for the world.”
Rubio met with Azerbaijan’s foreign minister this week and commended the country’s recent shipments of fuel to Armenia as evidence of a “continued commitment to the historic peace deal,” the State Department said.
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