The New York Times said it had seen a confidential US government report saying that Ethiopian government officials and allied militia fighters are leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.
The report, which was prepared earlier this month, documents the looting, rape and displacement of a number of villages, where the fate of tens of thousands of people is unknown.
The report indicates that fighters and officials from the Amhara region joined the ethnic cleansing operations in Tigray in the context of their support for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The New York Times said that the deteriorating situation in the region, against the backdrop of the military campaign that Abiy Ahmed launched last November against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, is taking shape to become the first major test of US President Joe Biden's administration in Africa.
The newspaper pointed out that former President Donald Trump had little interest in the brown continent and had never visited it, but President Biden promised a more active approach.