Blinken, Days After Visit, Finds 'War Crimes' In Ethiopia

The United States has concluded that Ethiopian and Eritrean troops as well as rebels committed war crimes during the brutal two-year conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, days after he visited Addis Ababa.

Blinken, who had sounded upbeat in Ethiopia about the prospects for peace after a breakthrough November 2 accord, made a forceful call for accountability on his return to Washington.

"Many of these actions were not random or a mere byproduct of war. They were calculated and deliberate," America's top diplomat said as he presented an annual US human rights report.

He said the State Department carried out a "careful review of the law and the facts" and concluded that "war crimes" were committed by federal troops from both Ethiopia and Eritrea -- a former adversary which allied with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed -- as well as by the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and forces from the neighboring Amhara region.

Blinken added that the State Department also found "crimes against humanity" by Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara forces, including killings and sexual violence, although he did not mention the TPLF.

Amhara's regional forces fought in Tigray alongside the government. Blinken said they committed "ethnic cleansing" with the forcible transfer of people out of western Tigray.

"We urge the government of Ethiopia and the government of Eritrea as well as the TPLF to hold those responsible for these atrocities accountable," Blinken said.

"The conflict in northern Ethiopia was devastating. Men, women and children were killed. Women and girls were subject to horrific forms of sexual violence. Thousands were forcibly displaced from their homes. Entire communities were specifically targeted based on their ethnicity."

Blinken also spoke of accountability during his trip to Addis Ababa, where he held an unusually long meeting with Abiy and spoke separately with senior TPLF leader Getachew Reda.

But he did not directly mention war crimes or crimes against humanity while in Addis Ababa. Abiy had voiced anger when Blinken during the war spoke more generally about crimes against humanity and the Ethiopian leader has rejected UN-led efforts for a probe.

Blinken, asked about the timing, said it was "appropriate to release the determination" at the time of the human rights report.

The United States has previously estimated that some 500,000 people died in the two-year conflict, making it one of the deadliest wars of the 21st century and dwarfing the toll from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The war began in November 2020 when the TPLF, once the major powerbroker in Ethiopia, attacked military installations in the region, triggering a major counteroffensive.

The conduct of the war badly soured US relations with Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation and long one of Washington's major partners on the continent, and with Abiy, once hailed as part of a new generation of forward-leaning leaders and had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation with Eritrea.

Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Blinken's finding was belated and that President Joe Biden's administration should have taken greater action to hold perpetrators accountable.

"The administration's inaction undermined the US response to the world's deadliest conflict in recent memory, particularly related to atrocities committed in Tigray," Risch said in a statement.

The administration imposed sanctions on Eritrea, an authoritarian state whose relations with Washington were already poor, and booted Ethiopia from a major trade pact, although it held back on further actions against the warring parties.

Blinken in Ethiopia stopped short of backing a return of the trade benefits, a key wish of Abiy's government and vocal diaspora groups. but voiced support for a return of broader cooperation.

In Washington, Blinken said he had seen from all sides in Ethiopia "a commitment to genuinely get to a better place" including on accountability for the war.

Ethiopia's situation is "vastly different" from other countries that have not addressed rights concerns, Blinken said.

The annual report renewed US worry over human rights in a number of countries that frequently come under fire.

It reiterated the US finding that China is committing "genocide and crimes against humanity" against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people.