US calls on African Union, other partners to address crisis in Ethiopia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on February 27, called on the African Union and other international partners to help address a deepening crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Additionally, the top diplomat added that the US was “deeply concerned” about the atrocities and overall deteriorating situation in the African country. Blinken’s latest stance suggested the US’ growing frustration on the response by Ethiopian authorities and neighbouring Eritrea on the “worst humanitarian crisis.”

“We ask international partners, especially the African Union and regional partners, to work with us to address the crisis in Tigray, including through action at the UN and other relevant bodies,” Blinken said in an official statement.

‘Immediate windrawl’

In his statement, Blinken urged for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray. “The immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray are essential first steps.  They should be accompanied by unilateral declarations of cessation of hostilities by all parties to the conflict and a commitment to permit unhindered delivery of assistance to those in Tigray,” he said.  In addendum, he reassured that the US was committed to permit “unhindered” delivery of assistance and USAID would soon deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team to the conflict zone of Ethiopia.

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His remarks came just a day after a global body released a report alleging that the Eritrean troops eradicated hundreds of unarmed civilians in mass killing in the northern city of Axum. The agency interviewed at least 41 survivors and witnesses to mass killings in November. 

Troops carried out extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling, and widespread looting, the report alleged. It added, Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray state systematically conducted house-to-house raids and carried out a massacre as evidence of new mass burials near two of the city’s churches emerged on the Satellite imagery analysis by the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab. 

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Image: Associated Press