Ethiopia.. The efforts of the African and American envoys continue, and UN accusations of detaining dozens of UN employees

The efforts of the African and American envoys to Ethiopia to break the deadlock in reaching a consensus to start a dialogue between the parties and try to stop the fire continue, while the United Nations accused Addis Ababa of detaining dozens of its employees.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said - in a press conference in Washington - that US envoy Jeffrey Feltman is in Addis Ababa to continue mediation efforts and support the efforts of African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo.

Price noted that there is little chance of working to resolve the crisis in Ethiopia peacefully.

On the other hand, Minister of State in the Ethiopian Government Communications Office Salamawit Kasa commented in an interview with Al Jazeera on the US embassy's call for its citizens to leave the Ethiopian capital, saying that any country has the right to advise its citizens what it wants, stressing that Addis Ababa is completely safe.

In the last comment of Prime Minister Abi Ahmed in his tweet on Twitter, he said that the reason for the challenges facing his country is what he called prejudices, adding that these challenges can be overcome with unity.

Expressing his pride in African identity, he said, "It has never been more urgent to reclaim the story about our continent."

Abi Ahmed: The reason for the challenges that our country faces are prejudices, and these challenges can be overcome with unity (Anatolia)

Dozens holding

In the context, the United Nations said today, Wednesday, that Ethiopia is holding 72 drivers working for the World Food Program in a city in the north of the country on the only road leading to the Tigray region at risk of famine.

"We call on the government to ensure their safety and the full protection of their legal and human rights," a UN spokesperson said.

The announcement of the drivers' detention comes a day after the United Nations announced that the Ethiopian authorities had arrested 22 UN employees in the capital, Addis Ababa, through raids targeting people from Tigray region under a state of emergency.

On the UN accusations, the Ethiopian government spokesman, Legisi Tolo, said that he does not have any information about the arrest of UN employees, adding in press statements that the detainees are Ethiopians violating the law.

And last September, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the expulsion of 7 senior United Nations officials on the grounds of meddling in the country's affairs.

field escalation

These statements come at a time when the fighting is escalating in the north, as the Ethiopian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Radwan Hussein said that the decision not to negotiate with groups that were classified as terrorist is still in place.

The minister added that Addis Ababa will not succumb to the pressures being exerted on it, and that it adheres to the independence of its decision.

Twelve political parties in the Oromia region (Ethiopia's largest region) pledged to fully support the government's efforts to eliminate what they described as terrorist groups.

On the other hand, the French news agency quoted the commander of the Oromo Liberation Army in Ethiopia, Gal Moro, as saying that his forces approached the capital, Addis Ababa, and were preparing to launch another attack, and he expected the war to end very soon.

Following the field escalation, the director of refugee housing in Gedaref state in Sudan, Abdel Moneim Othman, told Al Jazeera that the state authorities in the east of the country are preparing to receive 100,000 new Ethiopian refugees as a result of the war and an expected famine in Ethiopia.

Othman confirmed that his administration, in cooperation with the competent authorities, took care to prepare 3 camps to receive the new refugees in Qala’ al-Nahil and Babakri in the state of Gedaref, and in Faw in the neighboring state of Gezira.

Since November 2020, at least 60,000 Ethiopian refugees have fled to Sudan due to the war in the Tigray region between the Federal Army and the forces of the Tigray Liberation Front.

It is noteworthy that on November 4, 2020, armed clashes erupted between the two Ethiopian parties in the Tigray region, after government forces entered the region in response to an attack on an army base.

On the 28th of the same month, Ethiopia announced the end of a law enforcement operation by taking control of the entire region, despite reports of continued human rights violations in the region since then, as thousands of civilians were killed.