The United States on Friday expressed alarm over a report that found security forces in northern Ethiopia committed abuses against Tigrayans that amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said Tigrayan civilians had been targeted in "a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing" in the long-contested Tigray region since the outbreak of Ethiopia's war in November 2020.
Over the following months, several hundred thousand Tigrayans were expelled from western Tigray by security forces and civilian authorities through ethnically-motivated rape, murder and starvation, the report said.
"The United States reiterates its grave concern over continuing reports of ethnically-motivated atrocities committed by Amhara authorities in western Tigray," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
"In particular, we are deeply troubled by the report's finding that these acts amount to ethnic cleansing."
HRW and Amnesty interviewed more than 400 people including refugees who fled into Sudan, and witnesses to the violence still living inside western Tigray and elsewhere in Ethiopia.
The report, titled "We Will Erase You From This Land," was released this week.
"Continued reports of atrocities underscore the urgency of ending the military conflict," Price said.
"We renew our call on all armed actors to renounce and end human rights abuses and violence against civilians."
