The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said Sunday that multiple arrests have been made in what seemed targeting people based on their ethnic origin, following the declaration of a state of emergency covering on 02nd of November.
The rights group said in a statement that several have been arrested in Addis Ababa on the streets and in their workplaces merely on the basis of their ethnic origin, confirming media reports of Tigrayans taken into custody as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels and its allies threaten to march on the capital.
Many of them are detained in various police stations in the city and there are “mothers with children and the elderly,” among them EHRC said in the statement. The Commission said that at some police stations, family visits, delivery of food and clothing are prohibited.
The Commission recalled that law enforcement agencies have been granted power to detain suspects without a warrant in the new emergency measures. However, it pointed out that there are human rights principles that law enforcement must adhere to when implementing the proclamation and its directives.
(Image- Police officers patrol along a road in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia February 21, 2018. Reuters)
