“Reuters”, a news agency, quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the Ethiopian authorities arrested during the last few weeks hundreds of the Tigrayan ethnicity in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
Lawyer Tessifalem Barhi, who is affiliated with an opposition party in Tigray, told “Reuters” that he has information about at least 104 Tigrayan detainees during the last two weeks in addition to five ones arrested in Diry Dawa town in the east of the country.
He revealed that he had received information on the detainees from their relatives, comrades, or friends.
He pointed out that most of the detainees were merchants, waiters, irregular laborers, crews of relief, and hoteliers.
The Ethiopian authorities affirmed that a number of companies owned by Tigrayans have been recently closed due to claimed ties with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which was listed as a terrorist organization since May 2021.
The front overwhelmed on public affairs in Ethiopia for three decades until 2018.
However, Jilan Abdy, spokesman for the Ethiopian Police denies pursuing anybody in the country for his ethnicity, stressing that the authorities arrest only those who are suspected of committing crimes.
“Reuters” indicated that the last campaign of arrest is a third of kind since the conflict broke out in Tigray between forces of the Ethiopian government and militants of the Tigray People's Liberation Front ( TPLF) in November 2020.
This campaign came on the backdrop of recovering of Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray by the TPLF weeks ago.
On the other hand, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has accused Ethiopia of hindering the delivery of humanitarian relief in Tigray.
The council issued a statement today morning says that the Ethiopian authorities lag at facilitating the mission of the international relief teams that work to deliver aids to the population of Tigray.
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