Authorities in Addis Ababa are rounding up Tigrayan youths in arbitrary arrests, targeting them solely because of their ethnic background and holding them without due process or formal charges, according to former detainees and their families.
Human Rights First Ethiopia stated that it has verified cases of arbitrary detention of Tigrayans in at least six sub-cities of Addis Ababa. Mebrhi Brhane, deputy director of Human Rights First Ethiopia, said the arrests have been ongoing for two weeks but intensified over the past ten days. Human Rights First Ethiopia stated that Tigrayans living in Addis Ababa are being identified by their names, accents, and language. He said his organization monitored the sub-cities of Yeka, Le Mikura, Bole, Ledeta, Addis Ketema, and Nefas Silk to compile a report.
According to Mebrhi, “numerous individuals remain in custody across the city,” including in the Yeka Sub-City, Kotebe, 02, Shola, as well as in the CMS areas of Lemi Kura Sub-City. He said, “This especially targets young people. They are taken from the streets and cafes. They are not brought to court, and no one even tells them why they are being detained.”
On June 21, a young man who had been arrested and later released after a week in detention told the BBC that he was walking down the street around 2 p.m. when police approached him. “They asked for my ID. When they saw my father’s name, the officer singled me out,” he said. “They took me to a police station in the Wesen area, along with three others who were arrested along the way. They placed us with about 40 other detainees. Some were street traders, others were drivers who had been stopped and taken from their vehicles — and one was a tailor,” he said.
Targeting of Tigrayans has largely subsided since the end of the Tigray conflict and the signing of the Pretoria Agreement between the federal government and Tigray regional authorities on November 2nd 2022. What sparked the latest incident remains unclear, but it may be tied to lingering tensions between the Tigray administration and the federal government, as well as the region’s growing rapport with the Eritrean government — a relationship that has grown cold with the Abiy administration.
