Ethiopia’s Amhara rejects charge of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Tigray

Amhara spokesperson dismisses top US diplomat’s accusations of its troops’ involvement in atrocities in Tigray.

Ethiopia’s Amhara region has rejected allegations of its forces’ involvement in “ethnic cleansing” in the country’s embattled Tigray region after the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Amhara troops to leave the area. Speaking to AFP news agency on Thursday, Amhara’s spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh dismissed reports of ethnic cleansing and large-scale displacement as “propaganda”. Last week, Tigrayan officials accused forces from neighbouring Amhara of kicking thousands of people off the land in western Tigray – a part of the region that ethnic Amharas claim rightfully belongs to them.