Critical Ethiopian diplomat urges peace talks in Tigray war
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – An Ethiopian diplomat who quit his post in the United States over concerns about atrocities in Tigray is calling for peace talks between the government and the embattled region’s fugitive leaders.
Berhane Kidanemariam served as the deputy chief of mission at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington until early March. In an interview with The Associated Press late Thursday, he warned that a protracted war in Tigray is devastating the region’s 6 million people.
People displaced by the recent conflict gather around water points provided by the International Rescue Committee at a makeshift camp for the displaced in Embadanso school in Shire, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. For months, one great unknown in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict has been the fate of hundreds of thousands of people in vast rural areas beyond the reach of outside aid, but now thousands who have been hiding there have begun arriving in a community that can barely support them. (International Rescue Committee via AP)