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Ethiopia's Leaders Rebuff Foreign Appeals for Diplomatic Solution in Tigray

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - Ethiopia's prime minister has rejected calls for
   dialogue to end an internal conflict that has already killed hundreds
   and displaced more than 40,000 people in the key U.S. ally in East
   Africa -- a stance that has alarmed diplomats from Addis Ababa to
   Washington about the potential for escalating conflict.

   On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed -- who last year was granted a
   Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending a long-simmering conflict
   between his country and neighboring Eritrea -- released a statement
   addressed not to his actual opponents, the Tigray People's Liberation
   Front (TPLF), but to the international community.

   "As a sovereign state, Ethiopia has every right to uphold and enforce
   its own laws within its own territory," Abiy said of the conflict that
   started in early November when the TPLF attacked federal forces. "And
   that is exactly what we are doing."

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