In two letters received today from James Duddridge MP, the Africa Minister, he addressed concerns about the targeting of Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia and repeated the UK’s insistence that independent human rights investigations should be permitted.

Sep 14, 2021 | News

In two letters received today from James Duddridge MP, the Africa Minister, he addressed concerns about the targeting of Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia:

Thank you for forwarding the recent report by Human Rights Watch. We remain deeply
concerned by the arbitrary arrest, detention and displacement of civilians in Addis Ababa
and elsewhere, as well as the reports of businesses being forcibly shut down. I made
this clear in my tweet of 20 July. We have raised our concerns directly with the
Government of Ethiopia on these reports and have been clear that they need to respect
international humanitarian law and human rights.
The UK has consistently called for access for independent human rights investigations
into reports of violations of international law. We will continue to do so and support the
joint investigation between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and
the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.

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In a second letter, on the humanitarian crisis, he said:

The Foreign Secretary raised our concerns on the humanitarian situation and the need
for a political dialogue to bring a lasting peace to Tigray directly with Prime Minister Abiy
on 5 August. I also raised these issues with the Ethiopian Minister of Peace, Muferihat
Kamil Ahmed, on 15 July. The UK has made clear to the United Nations Security
Council, most recently in a debate on Tigray on 26 August, our concerns at the continued
barriers to humanitarian access, the role of Eritrean forces in the conflict, and human
rights abuses and violations.

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Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, delivered an update to the UN Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Tigray region and on progress made in the context of the joint UN and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission investigation.

Concerns have been expressed by experts that the joint UN and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission investigation did not visit many of the places where atrocities have occurred. It was noted also that the investigators did not visit Aksum, Idaga Hamus, Adigrat, Mahbere Dego, Debre Abbay and many other places where terrible atrocities occurred. They have produced a map detailing the locations visited by the joint investigation, against a background of the locations of the 256 reported massacres.

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