Tigrayans are being rounded up in a massive crackdown on suspected rebel supporters in Ethiopia. It appears that all were being targeted in the crackdown, from bank CEOs to priests to UN staff. The police denied targeting the Tigrayan ethnic group, saying those arrested were believed to be involved with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
As a result of the crackdown, reports suggest that the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the TPLF rebels have reached close to Addis Ababa. Kemise town, 325 km from Addis Ababa, is reported to have been the location of the fighters. The country’s former prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who had won the Nobel Prize two years earlier, had sent troops to Tigray late last year to depose the ruling party TPLF. The group, however, struck back in June, retaking several areas in Tigray.
The year-long conflict has killed thousands of people and forced more than two million to leave their homes. There was fighting between Tigrayan forces and government troops in Ethiopia, which prompted the US and other nations to call for a ceasefire. Biden administration officials said they were ‘gravely concerned’ about the situation. Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, also called for a ceasefire, saying, ‘The conflict in Ethiopia must end’.
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The United Nations has estimated that there are up to 7 million people in Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions who need assistance. Five million of these people are in Tigray, where some 400,000 live in famine-like conditions.
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