Ethiopia: US Department of State report points to dire state of human rights

The US Department of State has released a report on the human rights situation in Ethiopia in 2024. The picture painted by the document is bleak.

Extrajudicial Killings, torture, and mass detentions. These are some of the abuses detailed in the latest annual report on the human rights situation in Ethiopia, released by the US Department of State.

Although the civil war in the Tigray region ended in 2022, Ethiopia is still plagued by armed conflict.

The Ethiopian army regularly clashed with militias in the Amhara and Oromia regions throughout the past year.

According to the US state department, which compiled information from reports from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International into its report, the fighting in 2024 led to widespread killings of civilians, mass forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, rape and other forms of violence against women and girls, as well as looting and destruction of property, notably by militias in Amhara.

At least 1,351 civilians were killed nationwide between January 2023 and January 2024.

The report has also detailed limitations to press freedom and freedom of speech, as well as a rising number of civilian abduction cases. In July 2024, three buses carrying 167 passengers were reportedly hijacked in Oromia, leading to demands for ransom.

A particularly vulnerable group to these abuses are refugees. Ethiopia currently hosts large numbers of civilians fleeing conflicts, notably from neighbouring Sudan.

Aside from ongoing violence, the population of the Tigray region, the main site of the civil war from 2020 to 2022, has also been struggling with the aftermath of the conflict, and remains vulnerable to abuses of power.

Despite some efforts by the Ethiopian government to curb the violence, the US State Department's conclusion is clear: it is not enough.