UN adviser calls Ethiopia's leaders 'irresponsible' for urging citizens to defend nation

ADDIS ABABA, NOVEMBER 27, 2021 — "Calls to arms and violent hate speech by irresponsible leaders are heading Ethiopia to the risk of genocide", the United Nations (UN) special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said on Friday, according to XinhuaNet.

Nderitu was likely responding to calls by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to Ethiopians to defend their motherland against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a terrorist designated group by the Ethiopian parliament, before he went into the battlefront to lead the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF).

However, the UN adviser considered this call for resistance against terrorism as "hate speech". She said "speech by irresponsible leaders, the militarization of society, ethnic profiling, denial of humanitarian access and blockage of food to areas under fighting inhabited by specific ethnic communities and misuse of medical supplies continue".

Nderitu also said those leaders "are spiraling the country down to a path where the risk of commission of atrocity crimes, including genocide, is real and must be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency."

The special adviser called on regional and international actors "to intensify their engagement to prevent falling into this abyss."

She also reminded parties in the conflict that they are accountable to the citizens of their country, their region and the world under international human rights and humanitarian laws.

While nothing can restore the lives of those lost, Nderitu said, it is not too late to prevent further suffering and end the hostilities through meaningful and constructive dialogue.

"Regional and international actors have provided leaders in Ethiopia with tools and mechanisms to conduct such dialogue," she said. "It is more imperative than ever that they demonstrate their true leadership by immediately committing to taking this path, in words and in actions.

This statement from a UN leader chastising Ethiopia comes amid the country's recent encounter of another UN staff, Dr. Eleni Gebremedhin, Chief Innovation Officer at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), secretly meeting with TPLF members, US, UK and French diplomats to find ways to install a transitional government in Ethiopia.

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