The United Nations (UN) said on Tuesday that 16 of its staff and dependants had been detained by authorities in Addis Ababa. However, the Ethiopian government noted that the detentions occurred because the UN staff had supported terrorists, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said the staff “are being detained in facilities against their will” and that the Ethiopian government has not provided the UN with any explanation for their arrests.
However, government spokesperson Legesse Tulu told the Associated Press (AP) that the detentions took place “because of their wrongdoing and their participation in terror acts.” Furthermore, Legesse told Reuters that the government had no information on the arrests of UN staff. “Those that have been detained are Ethiopians who violate the law,” he noted.
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Regarding the terror accusations, Dujarric said: “We have no further information at this point.” He also noted that the UN is “actively working with the government of Ethiopia to secure their immediate release.”
A humanitarian worker told the AP that all the detained staff are ethnic Tigrayans. The detentions followed the mass arrests of ethnic Tigrayans by the police in Addis Ababa since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency last week. The government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Sunday that it had received numerous reports of arrests of Tigrayans in the capital, including women and children.
The Ethiopian government announced last Wednesday that it was imposing a nationwide state of emergency as the TPLF captured more territory and suggested that they might advance towards Addis Ababa and overthrow Abiy’s government.
The United States (US) condemned the detentions. US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that the arrests of UN staff are “concerning.” Price also denounced the Ethiopian government for making arrests based on ethnicity. He said that “security force harassment and detention on the basis of ethnicity is completely unacceptable.”
Price also noted that the only way to prevent the conflict from further intensifying is for both sides to start negotiations. He added that the US and the African Union (AU) are willing to “facilitate discussions” between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government while the “window of opportunity” still exists.
The Ethiopian government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been at loggerheads with the UN over the organisation’s criticism of the government’s war effort. Last month, Ethiopia had expelled seven senior UN officials, including the heads of UNICEF and OCHA, for “meddling” in its internal affairs.
The UN has previously criticised the Ethiopian government for preventing aid from reaching Tigray and deliberately causing famine-like conditions. The world body has also accused Abiy’s government of committing grave human rights abuses and crippling “life-saving humanitarian operations.”
Ethiopia has been in the middle of a severe humanitarian and political crisis since November last year, when PM Abiy ordered a military response to an attack on a federal army camp in Tigray by the TPLF, declared a “terrorist” organisation. The fighting quickly boiled over into a full-scale armed invasion by Ethiopian troops, who partnered with Eritrean soldiers in their operation.
The conflict in Tigray has killed thousands and displaced over two million and has witnessed grave human rights violations, including mass killings, rapes, and deliberate starvation. Both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF have accused each other of committing atrocities.