WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today applauded Senate passage of their bipartisan resolution calling on the government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, and other belligerents in the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations.
“I am pleased the U.S. Senate was able to come together in a bipartisan way to add its unanimous concern over the ongoing crisis Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The United States should continue to press the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to end hostilities in the Tigray region, work with its international partners to hold accountable those who have committed atrocities and stoked unnecessary violence, and pursue efforts that help all of Ethiopia urgently regain a path of democratic transition and national reconciliation,” said Ranking Member Risch. “Ethiopia’s ongoing ethnic and political crises have already overshadowed the forthcoming national elections and undermined their credibility as a free, fair, inclusive and transparent process. I encourage all stakeholders to work together to improve this process.”
“With the humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Tigray showing no signs of abating, the unanimous passage of this resolution is an important signal that the United States demands peace in Ethiopia,” said Senator Cardin. “Innocent people are being displaced, starved, brutalized, and killed. The U.S. must use all available diplomatic tools to bring an end to the violence and ensure the perpetrators of these atrocities are held accountable.”
The resolution was introduced on March 5, passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 24, and passed the full Senate on May 19. Full text of the resolution can be found here.
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