US Condemns Atrocities in Tigray Ethiopia.

United States has strongly condemned the atrocities reported in Tigray Ethiopia where an ongoing conflict has displaced thousands to Sudan. America is urging the African Union to assist in resolving the deteriorating situation.

“We are deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.

According to a report by Amnesty International, crimes against humanity may have been committed. Amnesty accused troops from neighbouring Eritrea of killing hundreds of people in the ancient city of Aksum on 28 and 29 November, saying the mass killings may amount to a crime against humanity.

However Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, told parliament on 30 November that “not a single civilian was killed” during the operation.

Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane G Meskel also dismissed the accusations from Amnesty, calling them “preposterous” and “fabricated”.

But witnesses have recounted how on that day they began burying some of the bodies of unarmed civilians killed by Eritrean soldiers – many of them boys and men shot on the streets or during house-to-house raids.

Amnesty’s report has high-resolution satellite imagery from 13 December showing disturbed earth consistent with recent graves at two churches in Aksum, an ancient city considered sacred by Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians.

The conflict erupted on 4 November 2020 when Ethiopia’s government launched an offensive to oust the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.