Africa
US Will Not Resume Aid to Ethiopia for Most Security Programs
By Reuters
https://www.voanews.com/ethiopia-tigray ... y-programs
March 12, 2021
A supporter of Tigray Regional Government shout slogans against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during a protest outside EU headquarters in Brussels, March 12, 2021
WASHINGTON - The State Department on Friday said Washington has decided not to lift the pause in assistance to Ethiopia for most programs in the security sector, days after U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken described acts in Tigray as ethnic cleansing.
State Department spokesperson
Ned Price said that while the United States has decided to resume certain types of assistance, including that related to global health and food security, assistance for other programs and most programs in the security sector would remain paused.
Given the current environment in Ethiopia, we have decided not to lift the assistance pause for other programs, including most programs in the security sector,
Price said at a news briefing.
Blinken has pressed Ethiopia to end hostilities in Tigray and on Wednesday, testifying before Congress, he said he wanted to see forces in Tigray from Eritrea and Amhara be replaced by security forces
that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray or commit acts of ethnic cleansing, which we've seen in western Tigray.
Thousands of people have died, hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes, and there are shortages of food, water and medicine in the region of more than 5 million people.
Blinken, in a call with United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres on Thursday, discussed the importance of an international investigation into reported human rights abuses in the region, the State Department said Friday.
It said that in the call, Blinken also called for
enhanced regional and international efforts to help resolve the humanitarian crisis, end atrocities, and restore peace in Ethiopia.
The U.N. said last week that Eritrean troops were operating throughout Ethiopia's northern Tigray region and reports suggested they were responsible for atrocities.
The State Department last month said Washington will unlink its pause on some aid to Ethiopia from its policy on the giant Blue Nile hydropower dam that sparked a long-running dispute between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.
But it cautioned that resumption of assistance would be assessed on several factors, including
whether each paused program remains appropriate and timely in light of developments in Ethiopia that occurred subsequent to the pause being put in place,
according to a State Department representative.
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POLITICS/News Wire
Ethiopia Calls U.S. Claims of Tigray Ethnic Cleansing ‘Spurious’
Helen Nyambura, Bloomberg News
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/ethiopia-ca ... 8.amp.html
6h ago
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken’s allegations of ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are
unfounded and spurious,
the African nation’s foreign ministry said while welcoming calls for a probe into any human rights violations in the northern province.
The U.S. is pressing Ethiopia’s government to end a war that’s been raging in the region for four months, drawing in troops from neighboring Eritrea, leaving thousands of people dead and forcing millions of others to flee. Last month, an Amnesty International report accused Eritrean soldiers of war crimes in Tigray for an alleged massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians in the town of Axum in November.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea criticized the report. Their governments have previously denied Eritrean troops are involved in the fighting.
Ethiopian Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed ordered an incursion into the north on Nov. 3 after regional forces attacked a state military camp there, the culmination of months of tension between the federal government and provincial authorities. While Abiy declared victory on Nov. 28, fighting has persisted and the United Nations warns there is a growing risk of starvation.
The accusations during Blinken’s testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10 were a
completely unfounded and spurious verdict against the Ethiopian government,
the ministry said on Twitter.
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. That is why the Ethiopian government vehemently opposes such accusations,
it said.
The government is conducting its own investigations into the alleged human rights violations and is ready to cooperate with the African Union and others on further probes, the ministry said.
Overblowing things out of proportion while the Ethiopian government has made its position unequivocally clear on the need for thorough investigation in collaboration with regional and international partners does not serve the purpose of justice other than unnecessarily politicizing the issue,
according to the statement.
It makes me wonder, WHY? Are they being pushed, to do the dirty work? Who or what drives them to implement wrong policies that never work in Africa; in particular in the HOA?
