Ethiopia: Washington denounces the racist rhetoric of a relative of Abiy Ahmed on Tigray
Ethiopian Tigray Region, May 2021 (illustrative image).
© RFI / Sébastien Németh
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Ethiopia, public statements by a close friend of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the war in Tigray have sparked a scandal in recent days, including a condemnation of the US administration and several human rights organizations .
However, the man behind the outcry denies having targeted the Tigrayan people, but only the TPLF rebellion.
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At the origin of the scandal, the statements of Daniel Kibret last week, during a public meeting.
Referring to the war in Tigray, this close friend of Abiy Ahmed compared the opponents of the Ethiopian government in the province to "Satan", judging that, like Satan, "
they must be the last of their kind
" and "
that no land should not put up with weeds like this
”.
In the US State Department, as in several international organizations, these comments caused a scandal.
Human Rights Watch, the Holocaust Memorial, and the World Center for the Responsibility to Protect have all expressed concern and condemnation.
Daniel Kibret may have let AFP know that he was then targeting "
the TPLF terrorist group
" - a clarification also endorsed by Ethiopian government spokesman Billene Seyoum - the US administration maintained Monday that "
hateful rhetoric like this
" was "
dangerous and unacceptable
".
If violent ethnic speeches have been frequently condemned by the UN and by Western chancelleries since the start of
the war in Tigray
, this is the first time that the United States has publicly taken a targeted position, this time citing by name a manager.
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Ethiopia
Abiy Ahmed