UN Calls for Protection of Tigray Civilians After Soldier Arrests

The United Nations issued an appeal Friday for the protection of civilians in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, amid reports of soldiers taking hundreds of people away from displacement camps in the region. 

“We reiterate our call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians including the forcibly displaced,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Babar Baloch said during a news briefing in Geneva. “It is crucial that all parties to the conflict recognize the civilian and humanitarian character of the displacement sites.” Eritrean and Ethiopian troops forcibly detained hundreds of young men and women in the northern town of Shire late Monday, according to news reports. Some of the detainees were released Thursday evening after UNHCR raised the issue with Ethiopian authorities, Baloch said.