The United States urges its citizens to leave Ethiopia immediately
The US State Department again urged US citizens in Ethiopia to leave the country immediately, adding that Washington has no plans to facilitate evacuations via military or commercial aircraft as Washington ramps up pressure to end the conflict in Ethiopia.
The United States this month advised its nationals in Ethiopia to leave the country as soon as possible and offered repatriation loans for those without the funds to leave.
A senior US State Department official told reporters that "there are no plans to send US military forces to Ethiopia to facilitate evacuations or repeat our recent emergency efforts in Afghanistan, which was a unique situation for many reasons."
The United Nations said Tuesday that at least 1,000 people, most of them ethnic Tigrayans, were arrested in cities across Ethiopia last week.
Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on November 2, a year after the conflict erupted between the federal government and forces allied with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the political party that controls the northern region of Tigray.
Another senior US State Department official said the African Union's envoy for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, plans to return to Ethiopia in the coming days.
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