Ethiopian Religious Leaders Arrested, Suspected Of Being Linked To TPLF Rebel Forces

JAKARTA - Ethiopian authorities have arrested high-profile Tigrayans, from bank CEOs to priests, as well as United Nations staff in a mass crackdown on suspected supporters of the rebellious northern forces, according to people linked to the detainees.

Police have denied targeting the Tigrayan ethnic group, saying those arrested are believed to have links to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been battling the central government for a year.

The war has killed thousands, forced more than two million from their homes, sucked in troops from neighboring Eritrea, and left hundreds of thousands of people starving. Fighting has spread to neighboring Afar and Amhara, threatening the stability of Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia declared a state of emergency last week when Tigrayan troops moved south towards the capital Addis Ababa. It allows indefinite detention and requires residents to carry identification cards that can show ethnic origin.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) said on Tuesday at least 16 Ethiopian staff and dependents were detained but had not specified their ethnicity. On Wednesday, it said nine people were still being held.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said the arrests of the Tigrayans, the latest wave documented by Reuters, were at least in the hundreds, including the elderly and mothers with children.

The detentions were "out of control", a senior Ethiopian official told Reuters, as quoted November 11. He requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Government spokesman Legese Tulu did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meanwhile, federal police spokesman Jeylan Abdi said he was not authorized to comment on the detentions. Previously, Addis Ababa police spokesman Fasika Fante said last week those detained "directly or indirectly" supported the TPLF.

Attorney General Gedion Timotheos did not respond to requests for comment but previously told Reuters the justice system contained checks and balances to ensure innocent people were released.

On Tuesday, police detained Daniel Tekeste, CEO of Tigrayan Lion Bank along with five other staff, a bank employee told Reuters, adding they were released that same evening.

A branch manager at another private bank said a policeman visited his office in the capital on Tuesday and asked if any Tigrayan people worked there. The manager said he told the clerk he didn't have that information, and he left.

Three high-level members of Tigray's former federally appointed government were detained last week but later released, one person said, adding that many lower- and mid-level Tigray local government officials were still being held.

Separately, Abraha Desta, a former cabinet-level member of the Tigrayan government who was once a prominent critic of the TPLF, was arrested in October after publicly denouncing the arrest of the Tigrayans.

A Tigrayan member of the ruling Prosperity Party was summoned to a meeting on Monday in the Kirkos district of the capital and later arrested, his friend told Reuters.

A list compiled by an imprisoned priest and given to a family member said 37 priests and religious workers had been arrested from four churches in the capital. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Separately, Tadele Gebremedhin, a Tigrayan lawyer working on the case of detained journalists and a senior TPLF official, was arrested at his home on November 4, a colleague said. He remains in prison.

However, most of the arrests reported to Reuters were not prominent citizens. An Addis Ababa resident said three of Tigrayan's friends - a bartender and two real estate brokers - were arrested last week.

Uniformed police and plainclothes men arrested the bartender at the Aarabon Cafe, the man said, while police arrested the touts at night at their home.

A UN spokesman said that in addition to the 16 staff and dependents, 72 drivers contracted by the UN World Food Program (WFP) were also arrested in Semera, the capital of the Afar region.

"Those detained are Ethiopian citizens who have violated the law," a Legesse government spokesman said of UN staff on Tuesday. He did not return calls for comment on the driver.

The government previously accused aid groups of arming Tigrayan forces but never provided evidence.

This month, Tigrayan joined another armed group, the Oromo Liberation Army. Both have threatened to attack the capital or seize the transport corridor linking landlocked Ethiopia with the region's main ports.

The war has its roots in a power struggle between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF, which dominated politics for three decades until he took office in 2018 and curbed his power.

Despite the problems, the United States urged an end to the military option, paying attention to access to humanitarian aid and a ceasefire.

"There's an opportunity, I hope, for everyone to step back, sit down, stop what's happening on the ground, and finally, come up with a ceasefire, have access to humanitarian aid, and overtime to negotiate a deal, a more durable political resolution," Foreign Minister Antony Blinken told reporters.