JOHANNESBURG (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is “gravely concerned by reported atrocities and the overall deteriorating situation” in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, in the toughest statement yet from Washington on Ethiopia’s ongoing conflict. Blinken’s statement strongly condemned the killings, forced removals and displacements, sexual assaults, and other extremely serious human rights violations and abuses by several parties that multiple organizations have reported in Tigray. Accounts of atrocities by Ethiopian forces against residents of Tigray in northwestern Ethiopia were detailed in reports by The Associated Press and by Amnesty International.
