Tens of thousands of Ethiopians rallied in Addis Ababa on Sunday in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government as federal troops fight Tigrayan and Oromo forces who are threatening to march on the city.
Some
demonstrators denounced the United States, which is among the foreign powers
that have called for a ceasefire as a year-long war that has killed thousands
of people and displaced millions intensified amid rebel advances last weekend.
The
United States, the U.N. Security Council, the African Union, and Kenya and
Uganda have called in recent days for a ceasefire.
According
to Reuters, Abiy's government has pledged to keep fighting. On Friday, the
government said it had a responsibility to secure the country, and urged its
international partners to stand with Ethiopia's democracy.
Some
of those gathered in Meskel Square in central Addis Ababa draped themselves in
the national flag. Many singled out the United States for criticism.
U.S.
President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of "gross
violations" of human rights and said it planned to remove the country from
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade agreement.
"Shame
on you USA," read one demonstrator's placard, while another said the
United States should stop "sucking Ethiopia's blood".
Other
demonstrators expressed anger at the U.S. call for the government and the
Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to begin talks.
The
conflict in the north of the country started a year ago when forces loyal to
the TPLF seized military bases in the Tigray region. In response, Abiy sent
troops, who initially drove the TPLF out of the regional capital, Mekelle, but
have faced a sharp reversal since June this year.
"Why
does the U.S. government not negotiate with terrorists like al Shabaab?"
said 37-year-old Tigist Lemma, referring to an al-Qaeda linked militant group
in Somalia.
"They
want to destroy our country like they did to Afghanistan. They will never
succeed, we are Ethiopians."
Speaking
at the rally, Addis Ababa Mayor Adanech Abiebe invoked Ethiopia's history of
resisting colonial power to justify the war.
The
conflict has killed thousands of people, forced more than 2 million from their
homes and left 400,000 people in Tigray facing famine.
On
Sunday, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths and the AU's special envoy to the Horn
of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, landed in Mekelle, one humanitarian source in
Ethiopia and one person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
A
spokesperson for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) in Ethiopia did not respond to a request for comment, and U.N. officials
in New York were not immediately reachable. AU spokesperson Ebba Kalondo did
not respond to a request for comment.
"I
can confirm only that they are both here and we are having discussions,"
TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda told Reuters.
Government
spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to a request for comment on the
officials' visit.
By Reuters
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