Tigray: Ethiopian prime minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from the border area

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“The Eritrean government has agreed to withdraw its forces off the border with Ethiopia. The Ethiopian National Defense Force will assume effective surveillance of the border areas immediately,” Abiy said in a statement. statement on Twitter after meeting with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in the Eritrean capital of Asmara.

Abiy said the Ethiopian National Defense Force will take over surveillance of the border areas immediately.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died since November, when Abiy launched a major military operation against Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which sent national troops and fighters from the region. ‘Amhara, in Ethiopia.

CNN has previously reported that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea had crossed into Tigray and perpetrated extrajudicial killings, massacres, sexual violence and other human rights abuses.

Abiy claimed on Friday that the TPLF had sparked Eritrea’s military involvement by firing rockets at its capital Asmara and therefore urged the Eritrean government to “maintain its national security”.

CNN was unable to verify the claim independently. The TPLF has denied initiating the conflict and has accused Ethiopia and its Eritrean allies of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Separate investigations by CNN and Amnesty International in February revealed evidence of massacres committed by Eritrean forces in the village of Dengelat and the town of Axum.
And, last week, CNN and Channel 4 News in the UK published investigations into the rape using Ethiopian and Eritrean troops as a weapon of war against women in Tigray.
A view of Wukro bus station, Tigray, on March 1, 2021.
On Tuesday, just days after the reports were released, Abiy said his government would hold accountable any soldiers responsible for rapes or looting in Tigray, acknowledging that Eritrean troops were fighting alongside Ethiopian forces after months of fighting. denials.

“Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in the Tigray region,” Abiy wrote in a post on his Twitter account. “Regardless of the TPLF’s propaganda of exaggeration, any soldier responsible for raping our women and looting communities in the region will be responsible, as their mission is to protect.”

Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for resolving a long-standing conflict with neighboring Eritrea, which ended two decades of hostilities. Critics say Abiy’s acclaimed peace deal with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki paved the way for the two sides to wage war on the TPLF, their mutual enemy.

On Monday, the Eritrean embassy in the United Kingdom and Ireland responded to repeated requests for comment from CNN denying allegations of wrongdoing by Eritrean soldiers and denying that Eritrean troops were in Ethiopia.

CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase, Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis and Alex Platt contributed to this report

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