(Geneva) The UN said on Tuesday that at least 1,000 people have been arrested since Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on November 2, most of them from the warring region of Tigray.
“We are concerned that arrests continued last week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, as well as in Gondar, Bahir Dar and other locations, with police citing overly broad state provisions emergency, ”said a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, during a press briefing in Geneva (Switzerland).
The spokesperson stressed that “this development is all the more worrying as most of the detainees are said to be of Tigrayan origin, often arrested because they are suspected of being affiliated with or supporting the Front for the Liberation of the People of Tigray (TPLF) ”.
“At least 1,000 people have been reportedly detained […], and some reports put forward a much higher figure, ”she said.
Regarding specifically the situation of local UN staff, “10 people are still detained as well as some 34 drivers” who work for the UN, she explained.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the army to Tigray in November 2020 to dismiss the regional authorities from the TPLF, who challenged his authority and whom he accused of having attacked military bases. Since then, Tigray has been subjected to what the UN describes as a de facto blockade of humanitarian aid.
On November 2, the government declared a six-month state of emergency in the face of the growing risk of TPLF and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters marching on the capital.
According to the UN High Commissioner, “conditions of detention are generally poor, with many detainees being held in overcrowded police stations, in violation of international human rights standards.”
Mme Throssell indicated that “administrative detention should only be used in exceptional circumstances and only against individuals posing a direct and urgent threat, to be determined on a case-by-case basis, and respecting procedural guarantees”.
In addition, she said, “detention must end as soon as the individual no longer poses a threat and must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner.”
“The arrests and detentions currently taking place in Ethiopia under the powers of the state of emergency do not meet these conditions,” she concluded.