Ethiopia says US war crime allegations ‘inflammatory’

Ethiopia’s government on Tuesday accused the US of taking a “partisan” approach by alleging that its forces, and Eritrean troops, had committed war crimes during the two-year conflict in Tigray.

“The US statement is inflammatory,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, a day after Washington accused all parties to the conflict of committing war crimes but singled out Ethiopian, Eritrean, and regional Amhara forces for crimes against humanity, without mentioning the Tigrayan rebels.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who last week made his first visit to Ethiopia since a breakthrough November 2022 peace deal between the federal government and Tigrayan rebels, on Monday made a forceful call for accountability on his return to Washington.