Foreign Affairs Council of the EU to meet
EU ministers will meet virtually today to discuss a variety of foreign affairs issues affecting the bloc.
During today’s informal meeting, ministers will be briefed by High Representative Josep Borrell on the results of Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto’s visit to Ethiopia’s Tigray region to enforce EU March Council conclusions.
Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been embroiled in conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government with support from the Eritrean military. So far, over one million ethnic Tigrayans have been displaced due to extreme regional violence, causing instability throughout the broader area. During this meeting, ministers will discuss a plan of action for Ethiopia and to bring stability to the Horn of Africa.
One likely course of action is to require the removal of Eritrean soldiers from Tigray through formal investigations into Eritrean and Ethiopian war crimes under international humanitarian law. If Eritrean soldiers are removed from the crisis, the situation will return to a civil conflict, creating more space for a ceasefire to be reached. This would allow for humanitarian access to the region and facilitate national elections on June 5 that are as free and as fair as possible.
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