August 4, 2021
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said on Wednesday during a visit to Ethiopia that she had raised her concerns about “dehumanising rhetoric” with authorities, amid war in the country’s northern Tigray region.
Samantha Power spoke at a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Her visit to the country, and to neighbouring Sudan, this week follows warnings from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of punitive measures against the Ethiopian government if aid is unable to reach the Tigray region.
“Dehumanising rhetoric hardens tensions and can historically accompany ethnically-motivated atrocities,” Power said, adding she had delivered that message in a meeting with the country’s Minister of Peace.
It was not immediately possible to reach Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman for comment.
War broke out in November between federal troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that controls Tigray.
Thousands of people have died in the fighting, around two million people have been displaced and more than 5 million rely on emergency food aid.
(Writing by Maggie FickEditing by Chris Reese, William Maclean)
Source: One America News Network
