British and American citizens have been swept up in Ethiopia’s mass detentions of ethnic Tigrayans under a new state of emergency in the country’s escalating war, The Associated Press has found.
Thousands of Tigrayans in the capital, Addis Ababa, and across Africa’s second-most populous country have already been detained and fears of more such detentions soared on Thursday as authorities ordered landlords to register tenants’ identities with police.
Meanwhile, men armed with sticks were seen on some streets as volunteer groups sought out Tigrayans to report them.
Ethiopia’s government says it is detaining people suspected of supporting the forces from the Tigray region who are approaching Addis Ababa following a year-long war with Ethiopian forces that was triggered by a political falling-out.
But human rights groups, lawyers, relatives and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission say detentions – including of children and the elderly – appear to be on the basis of ethnicity.
The daughter of a British national, Meron Kiros, told the AP that her 55-year-old father, Kiros Amdemariam Gebreab, had lived in the UK for more than a quarter-of-a-century and was visiting Ethiopia to work on his PhD studies when he was detained at his home in the capital on November 1.
“My father has no political involvement in what has been happening,” she said and attributed his arrest to “purely for being a Tigrayan human being”.
She said the family had not been allowed any communication with him, which she described as heartbreaking.
The British government told the AP it had raised his case with Ethiopian authorities. British officials believe a very small number of UK nationals have been detained.
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Re: Britons and Americans swept up in Ethiopia’s detention of Tigrayans (Irish Examiner)
hehhehehehe
<<Meron Kiros, told the AP that her 55-year-old father, Kiros Amdemariam Gebreab, visiting Ethiopia to work on his PhD>> lol this just funny. Perhaps he could be one of those who threw their AK47 into the dumpster in their backyards. He flew all the way to Addis Ababa to organize the killing of innocents. The Western media complained why innocents are saved by arresting people with criminal intents. What would they do if these were in their country? More than what Ethiopia is doing now, we for sure know this.
Whatever Ethiopia doing now is for greater public safety. Did any Western media carry what Tigre Dessie and Kombolcha residents did?
<<Meron Kiros, told the AP that her 55-year-old father, Kiros Amdemariam Gebreab, visiting Ethiopia to work on his PhD>> lol this just funny. Perhaps he could be one of those who threw their AK47 into the dumpster in their backyards. He flew all the way to Addis Ababa to organize the killing of innocents. The Western media complained why innocents are saved by arresting people with criminal intents. What would they do if these were in their country? More than what Ethiopia is doing now, we for sure know this.
Whatever Ethiopia doing now is for greater public safety. Did any Western media carry what Tigre Dessie and Kombolcha residents did?