U.S. official says crackdown “harsh, intense”

ESAT News (September 26, 2016)

                           Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield called the response by the TPLF regime in Ethiopia to protesters an “intense and somewhat harsh crackdown,” according to a report filed by the Voice of America.

The Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said in an interview that the “United States is very concerned over the situation in Ethiopia, particularly the instability in the Oromia and Amhara regions.”

Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield met Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn UN General Assembly last week and “encouraged him to look at how the government is addressing this situation.”

The situation could “get worse if it’s not addressed – sooner rather than later,” she said.

Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield said the United States believes that the situation in the country could deteriorate and that the Ethiopian government is aware of that possibility as well, the report said.