On Monday 22 March, EU foreign ministers discussed the worrying deterioration of the humanitarian situation resulting from the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia. In the absence of any progress, the European Union has spoken out, this time threatening sanctions against all those responsible for human rights violations (see EUROPE 12676/30).
Speaking to the press, the EU head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, lamented the lack of progress made since the conflict began five months ago, referring to daily reports of human rights violations of a massive scale, including mass rape, torture, a lack of communication and lack of humanitarian access.
“This is an unacceptable situation that pushes us to continue to put pressure for humanitarian access to be allowed, for an independent investigation on human rights abuses to be launched and for Eritrean troops to be withdrawn from Tigray”, he said.
“We are ready to activate all our foreign policy tools against all responsible for human rights violations. This applies to all parties to the conflict”, Borrell warned.
He announced that he was mandating the Finnish Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, to carry out a second mission to Ethiopia on his behalf “to express clearly our capacity to act if the situation continues”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)