Ethiopia is home to renowned tigers, UN staff told Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopian authorities have rallied prominent Tigers – from the bank’s chief executive to priests – and United Nations staff in a massive attack on suspected followers of northern rebel forces, according to detainees.

Police have denied targeting the Tigray ethnic group, saying the detainees were linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/addis-ababa-government that has confronted the central government. -requests-registration-of-residents-arms-media-2021-11-02 for one year.

The war has killed thousands, displaced more than two million people, sucked up nearby Eritrean troops and left hundreds of thousands starving. Fighting has spread to the surrounding Afar and Amhara regions, threatening the stability of Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia declared a state of emergency last week https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/addis-ababa-government-urges-residents-register-arms-media-2021-11-02 as Tigris forces pushed south. The capital of Addis Ababa. This allows for indefinite arrests and requires citizens to carry ID cards that can indicate their ethnic origin.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that at least 16 Ethiopian workers and dependents had been arrested https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-says-least-nine-staff-dependents-detained-ethiopia-2021-11-09 but has not specified their ethnicity. On Wednesday, he said nine were still under arrest.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said the arrests of tigers – documented by Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-tigrayans-idUSKBN2CO0VF – were at least hundreds, including the elderly. people and mothers with children.

The arrests were “out of control,” a senior Ethiopian official told Reuters. He asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation.

BANKERS AND PRIESTS

Legesse Tulu government spokesman did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Federal Police spokeswoman Jeylan Abdi said she was not allowed to comment on the arrests, while Addis Ababa police spokeswoman Fasika Fant said last week that the detainees had “directly or indirectly” sided with the TPLF.

Attorney General Gedion Timotheos did not respond to requests for comment, but previously told Reuters that the judicial system had checks and balances to ensure that the innocent were free.

Police on Tuesday arrested Daniel Tekeste, CEO of Tigrayan at Lion Bank, along with five other employees, a bank employee told Reuters, who was released later that night.

A branch of another private bank told Reuters that a police officer visited his office in the capital on Tuesday and asked if a Tiger man was working there. The director said he told the officer he did not have that information, and he left.

Three senior members of the former federal-appointed Tigray administration were arrested last week but later released, one said, adding that many high-ranking and middle-ranking Tigray government officials in the region had been arrested.

Abraha Desta https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-idAFKBN2GS0FQ, a former cabinet member of the Tigris administration, who was a notable critic of the TPLF, was publicly arrested in October after allegations were made. of the Tigers.

A Tiger member of the government’s Prosperity Party was called to a meeting on Monday in the capital’s Kirkos district and was later arrested, his friend told Reuters.

A list compiled by an imprisoned priest and passed on to a family member said 37 priests and religious workers from four churches in the capital had been arrested. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

COFFEE COLLECTION

Tadele Gebremedhin, a tiger lawyer who handled the cases of arrested journalists and TPLF senior officials, was arrested at his home on Nov. 4, a colleague said. He remains in prison.

However, most of the arrests reported to Reuters were not of reputable citizens. A resident of Addis Ababa said three Tigra people – a bartender and two real estate brokers – were arrested last week.

Police in uniform and men in street clothes arrested the bartender at the Aarabon cafe, the man said, police arrested the brokers at their homes at night.

A UN spokesman said 16 drivers hired by the UN World Food Program (WFP) had also been arrested for 16 workers and also detained dependents in Semera, the capital of the Afar region.

“Those who have been arrested are Ethiopians who violate the law,” a government spokesman for Legesse said on Tuesday about UN workers. He did not return calls to comment on the drivers.

The government has previously accused aid groups of arming Tigris forces, but never provided evidence.

This month, the Tigers joined another armed group, the Oromo Liberation Army. Both have threatened to attack the capital or intercept a transport corridor linking the main seaport in the Ethiopian region.

The war is based on the power struggle between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF, which dominated politics for three decades until he took office in 2018 and reduced power.

The United States called for an end to military opportunities.

“There is an opportunity, I hope, for everyone to step back, sit down, stop what is happening on the ground, and ultimately have a ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid and negotiate over time. A more lasting political resolution,” Blinken Secretary of State Antony Blink told reporters .