Antony Blinken 'deeply worried' about military escalation in Ethiopia

The US State Department's spokesman, Ned Price, in a press release stated that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is deeply worried by Ethiopia's military escalation and has called for urgent talks to resolve the problem. Price made the announcement on November 26, following a telephonic conversation between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Blinken. The remarks were made late Friday, just hours after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed joined the national army on the front lines. Ethiopia's state-owned Fana Broadcasting claimed on Friday that Abiy was battling alongside the army against rebel Tigrayan forces in the northeastern Afar area.

“Secretary Blinken expressed grave concern about worrying signs of military escalation in Ethiopia and emphasised the need to urgently move to negotiations,” Ned Price said in a statement released on November 26.

For more than a year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy's government has been fighting Tigrayan forces in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in Africa's second-most populous country. The crisis began in November 2020, when Nobel Peace Prize laureate Abiy dispatched troops to Tigray to depose the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Until Abiy took power in 2018, the TPLF had governed the federal administration for nearly 30 years. After a few weeks, government forces appeared to have won a decisive victory in Tigray's capital, Mekelle. However, the battle continued, and by June 2021, Tigrayan troops had retaken the majority of the province and advanced into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions. Tigrayan troops recently made significant territorial gains, claiming this week to have conquered a town only 220 kilometres (135 miles) from Addis Abeba, the capital.

UN slams Ethiopian leaders for putting the country on 'brink of genocide'

The United Nations special adviser on genocide prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, slammed Ethiopia's "irresponsible" leaders for their calls for arms and aggressive hate speech on Friday, 26 November, saying their remarks are putting the country on the brink of genocide, according to news agency Xinhua. This statement comes only weeks after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed advised Ethiopian civilians to arm themselves in order to prevent rebel terrorists from moving farther. According to the BBC, the Prime Minister made the announcement on Facebook after terrorists from Tigray's northern region grabbed control of several cities in Amhara. The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that the number of people requiring food aid in the country's north had risen to more than nine million. 

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP