Senior EU diplomat Josep Borrell criticized EU member states on Monday (December 13) for failing to agree on sanctions against people suspected of war crimes in the Ethiopian civil war. Large-scale human rights violations” expressed disappointment in responding to effective policies. ” There.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Borrell said that the EU’s response to the Ethiopian civil war was “one of my biggest setbacks this year”. He stated that the European Union had failed to prevent “massive rapes, racial affiliation-based killings and concentration camps for the purpose of warfare with sexual violence,” and pointed out the lack of consensus among EU governments.
It is understood that Germany is one of the main countries that are unwilling to impose sanctions, but Borrell told reporters, “Many countries think that (sanctions) is not an appropriate solution.”
Although the Biden administration of the United States imposed sanctions in accordance with its Human Rights Magnitsky Act, the EU has not followed suit except for freezing its $107 million budget support for Ethiopia.
Last month, EU officials told EURACTIV that sanctions are being discussed in the context of the EU’s human rights sanctions regime, but little progress has been made.
At the same time, although there are still difficulties in providing assistance to those in need, the EU continues to provide humanitarian assistance. Ethiopian aid experts say that only about 10% of aid reaches the people who need it most.
Borrell admitted that although sanctions will not stop the conflict, “in my opinion, they will affect the behavior of the actors.”
In addition to multiple reports of human rights violations by both sides of the conflict, the fighting also had devastating humanitarian consequences. According to the United Nations World Food Program, it is estimated that more than 400,000 people are living in the famine in Tigray. It said that there are about 9.4 million people in Ethiopia who are in urgent need of food assistance.
The war derailed the economic and political reform agenda, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed won widespread praise from the international community.
The civil war began in November last year, when federal forces entered the northern provinces of the country after the rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front launched an attack on the government military base.
The Abbey government subsequently relentlessly suppressed the rebels, ignoring all the demands of the international community for a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement with the TPLF. On the contrary, Abi said that only a full-scale military victory is enough.
The African Union facilitator Olesegun Obasanjo and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta have been leading regional efforts to promote peace.
Earlier this week, local media reported that TPLF troops had retaken the historic town of Lalibela in the neighbouring province of Amhara, but it was reported that government forces had also retaken the town of Tigray in recent weeks.
Slovenia, as the presidency of the Council of the European Union, asked the UN Human Rights Council to convene a special meeting on the situation in Ethiopia on Monday.
The Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations Office in Geneva announced that more than 50 countries support this call.
The UN Human Rights Council issued a statement on Monday saying that at the request of the European Union, the UN Human Rights Council will hold a special meeting on the “serious” situation in Ethiopia on Friday.
The Ethiopian government reacted violently to the call for a special meeting, describing it as an “unjust and counterproductive attempt by certain people to exert political pressure”.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the UN Council ignored the TPLF’s call to investigate human rights violations and atrocities in Amhara and Afar provinces.
[Edited by Frédéric Simon]
