Hundreds of Tigrayans Detained in Addis Ababa

By Staff, Agencies

Ethiopian police detained hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans in the capital, Addis Ababa, since federal government forces lost control of the Tigray region's capital on June 28, according to some of those who say they were released.

The detentions in Addis Ababa are the third wave of what dozens of Tigrayans, rights groups and lawyers have described as a nationwide crackdown on ethnic Tigrayans since November, when fighting erupted between the military and the Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] in Tigray, the country's northernmost region.

In this regards, city authorities in Addis Ababa say they have recently closed a number of Tigrayan-owned businesses over alleged links to the TPLF, which was designated by the government as a terrorist organization in May but had dominated Ethiopian politics for three decades until 2018.

However, Addis Ababa police spokesperson Fasika Fanta said he had no information on the arrests or business closures.

Ethiopia's attorney general has previously said there is no government policy to "purge" Tigrayan officials. He has said he cannot rule out that some innocent individuals might be swept up in arrests but that the TPLF has a big network in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia must err on the side of caution.

Officials in the prime minister's office, the attorney general's office and a government task force on Tigray did not respond to requests for comment on the released detainees' reports of a wave of arrests, or on individual cases.