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US accuses Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tigray rebels of war crimes

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The United States has accused the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as Tigray rebels of committing war crimes in the conflict that engulfed the country since 2020.

The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who addressed journalists in Washington on Tuesday, said President Joe Biden’s administration had carefully reviewed the facts to determine the crimes.

Blinken met with the governments of the two countries and Tigrayan officials on last week.

US has determined after the meeting that all “warring parties in the brutal war in northern Ethiopia committed war crimes.”

The US top official accused members of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, the Eritrean Defence Forces, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara forces of committing war crimes during the two-year bloody conflict.

He also blamed the Ethiopian and Eritrean Defence forces as well as Amhara forces of committing crimes against humanity including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence and persecution.

READ ALSO: 10 killed as Ethiopian airstrikes hit Tigray capital, Mekelle

“Many of these actions were not random or a mere by product of war. They were calculated and deliberate,” he said, and urged the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as the TPLF to hold those responsible for these atrocities accountable.

The hostilities which led to the death of hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of others, was brought to an end following an agreement signed in November 2022 between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to hear a briefing of a Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, an independent group mandated to investigate the reported human rights crimes later, on Tuesday.

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