Reuters Handout
US Senator Chris Coons, who visited Addis Ababa commissioned by President Joe Biden, said that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rejected the US call for a unilateral declaration of a ceasefire in Tigray.
Commenting on the results of his visit to Ethiopia at the end of last week, Senator Kunis told reporters that Abiy Ahmed pledged to punish soldiers who violate human rights in Tigray, adding, however, that “the prime minister had made promises to himself earlier but was unable to implement them fully.”
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He indicated that he was urging Abe to declare a ceasefire in Tigray, but the latter refused, saying that the fighting had generally stopped, and that the situation was limited to a security operation to pursue the leaders of the rebel “Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray”.
“His answer was that a ceasefire was not necessary,” Koons said, adding that this was a point of contention between him and the Ethiopian Prime Minister.
Koons said that Abiy Ahmed denied any forced displacement of residents from western Tigray, and any ethnic cleansing in the area.
And the American Senato continued, saying: The Ethiopian Prime Minister strongly opposed all my attempts to describe this conflict as ethnic, and he was insisting that this was a conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front as a political force and political party involved in the attack on federal forces.
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It is noteworthy that Democratic Senator Chris Coons visited Addis Ababa on March 20 and 21, where he met Abi Ahmed, who admitted for the first time that massacres had occurred in the Tigray region, and pledged to hold those responsible accountable.
Source: Reuters
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