NAIROBI, March 15 (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is meeting with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and others in Ethiopia to discuss the fallout from a devastating two-year conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the country’s Tigray region. of recovery.
Blinken will brief reporters later on Wednesday on his visit, which the Ethiopian government said will also include discussions of a dispute with downstream Egypt over Ethiopia’s completion of Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam.
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The Ethiopian government is eager to see the United States and other countries resume economic and other aid, but there are concerns about how the government will address widespread human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict.
The government opposes the UN commission of inquiry.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Blinken told Foreign Minister Demek Mekkonen.
“But the most important thing is to maintain the peace that has now taken root in the North and strengthen our bonds as we go forward.”
A peace deal signed by the government and representatives of Tigray state in November remains in place in the region, home to more than five million people, which has been cut off from communications, banking and other basic services for much of the conflict.
Humanitarian organizations now returning to the area report starvation and a lack of medical supplies, with many health centers damaged or destroyed.
A major challenge to the peace deal has been the presence of troops from neighboring Eritrea, which is allied with the Ethiopian government in the conflict and is not a party to the deal.
Observers say Eritreans have withdrawn to the border area. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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