Ethiopia-Tigray crisis: No Afghan-style evacuations as US tells citizens to quit Ethiopia

The United States State Department has reiterated a call to its citizens in Ethiopia to leave the Horn of Africa nation.

The caution is the latest in a series of security advisories as Ethiopia’s politico-security situation deteriorates further.

“We are doing that not because we are pessimistic about the prospects for peace, but because we are practical,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

The US Embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, he added was open to advancing loans to nationals who do not have money to buy tickets.

He added that the US would not allow the events of Kabul airport after the Taliban takeover to reoccur. The US does not want a “misperception” among the public “that what we saw in Afghanistan is something that the US government can undertake anywhere and everywhere in the world.”

Rebel groups aligned to the Tigray Peoples Revolutionary Front, TPLF and Oromo Liberation Front, OLF, are threatening to hit the capital Addis Ababa.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a law enforcement operation against TPLF in November 2020 but the rebels turned the tide and have waged a fightback that has seen them advancing towards Addis Ababa.

They say they are fighting to break a siege on their region after government discontinued banking services, cut telecommunications and blocked humanitarian aid from entering the starved region.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK