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Departing US Envoy Warns Ethiopia Against Violence

Eskinder Firew

   ADDIS ABABA - Calling Ethiopia "the critical actor in Horn of Africa
   stability," outgoing [1]U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor
   voiced confidence in a strengthened bilateral relationship but warned
   that violence -- especially in the northern Tigray region -- threatens
   the country's progress.
   "We remain concerned about ethnic violence around the country and the
   threat it poses to achieving the country's potential," Raynor said of
   Ethiopia, speaking at a press conference Monday in Addis Ababa, the
   capital.
   It was Raynor's final news briefing as ambassador, a post he has held
   since September 2017. He has focused on Africa for many of his 30-plus
   years as a diplomat.
   Rivalries among some of Ethiopia's 80 ethnic groups have spawned deadly
   violence, including the Jan. 12 killings of more than 80 civilians in
   Metekel, a town in the western Benishangul-Gumaz region, the Associated
   Press [2]reported, citing information from the Ethiopian Human Rights
   Commission.
   Raynor said the U.S. government also is "particularly alarmed by the
   [3]ongoing situation in Tigray," where Ethiopian federal forces
   launched a military operation in early November to put down a rebellion
   by regional forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Ethiopia's
   government said that it had regained control of the region by late
   November, but reports of extrajudicial killings and other sporadic
   violence have continued to filter out.
   Since the conflict's outbreak, more than 58,000 have fled northern
   Ethiopia for neighboring Tigray, the International Organization for
   Migration [4]reported Monday. While thousands are believed to have been
   killed and many more internally displaced, numbers are difficult to
   verify because of limited communications with, and access to, Tigray.
   The United Nations estimates that roughly 4.5 million people in Tigray
   desperately need [5]food, medicine and other basics, and U.N. agencies
   have criticized Ethiopian authorities for [6]blocking humanitarian aid.
   "After almost three months, we're still not seeing enough humanitarian
   assistance reach the most vulnerable areas," Raynor told journalists.
   "Much more needs to be done, and urgently, to ensure humanitarian
   organizations -- both Ethiopian and international -- have full and
   secure access to the region to provide lifesaving support to the
   millions of people who are suffering."

References

   1. https://et.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/our-ambassador/
   2. https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-abiy-ahmed-ethiopia-massacres-kenya-6c46867d5a89d5c2d3d3a44c4717ac50
   3. https://www.voanews.com/ethiopian-refugee-crisis
   4. https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/northern-ethiopia-crisis-situation-report-1-11-18-january-2021
   5. https://www.voanews.com/africa/ethiopia-tigray/who-warns-diseases-spreading-tigray-because-conflict
   6. https://www.voanews.com/africa/un-slams-ethiopian-government-blocking-aid-conflict-ridden-tigray

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