III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 97 

Calling on the Government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, 

and other belligerents to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow 

unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations pertaining to the conflict in 

the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 9, 2021 

Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. COONS, Mr. KAINE, Mr. 

YOUNG, and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Calling on the Government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People’s 

Liberation Front, and other belligerents to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations pertaining to the 

conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. 

Whereas the United States and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia share an important relationship and 

more than a century of diplomatic relations; 

Whereas Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa and plays a key role in advancing security and stability across sub-Saharan Africa, including as a top conVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Mar 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR97.IS SR97

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tributor of uniformed personnel to United Nations peacekeeping missions; 

Whereas tensions between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s 

Prosperity Party and the Tigray People’s Liberation 

Front (TPLF), which was part of the ruling coalition in 

Ethiopia until late 2019, escalated when the TPLF held 

elections in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia on September 

9, 2020, despite the decision by the Federal Government 

of Ethiopia to postpone general elections due to the 

COVID–19 pandemic; 

Whereas the TPLF rejected the postponement of general 

elections and considered the extension of the term of the 

Federal Government to be unconstitutional, and the Federal Government subsequently deemed the Tigray regional elections illegitimate; 

Whereas, in the early hours of November 4, 2020, Prime 

Minister Abiy ordered a military offensive in response to 

an attack by the TPLF on the Northern Command of the 

Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), which 

evolved into an armed conflict between the ENDF and allied forces on one side and the TPLF on the other side, 

with thousands of deaths reported; 

Whereas the Government of Ethiopia rejected all offers, including one extended by African Union Chairman Cyril 

Ramaphosa in November 2020, to mediate talks with the 

TPLF; 

Whereas, on November 28, 2020, the Government of Ethiopia claimed victory in the conflict after taking Mekelle, 

the capital city of the Tigray Region, with Prime Minister Abiy announcing that his forces had ‘‘completed and 

ceased the military operations’’ and would shift focus to 


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rebuilding the region and providing humanitarian assistance while Federal police attempt to apprehend leaders of 

the TPLF; 

Whereas clashes have continued in the Tigray Region and 

Ethiopian soldiers and allied forces have pursued prominent TPLF leaders, notably killing former Minister of 

Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia Seyoum Mesfin as part of a 

‘‘stabilizing mission . . . to bring to justice perpetrators’’; 

Whereas, in 2020, prior to the outbreak of fighting in the 

Tigray Region, there were more than 1,800,000 people 

internally displaced in Ethiopia and approximately 

2,000,000 people in the Tigray Region were already in 

need of humanitarian assistance; 

Whereas the conflict in the Tigray Region has prompted 

more than 61,000 Ethiopians to seek refuge in Sudan, 

has displaced as many as 500,000 people internally, and 

has caused severe shortages of food, water, medical supplies, and other necessary goods for those who remain in 

the region; 

Whereas the conflict has disrupted harvests, livelihoods, markets, and supply chains, food and medical supplies have 

been looted, and restrictions and bureaucratic impediments continue to constrain the humanitarian response, 

with nearly 4,000,000 people in the Tigray Region estimated to require urgent food assistance, including 

100,000 Eritrean refugees; 

Whereas, during the first few weeks of the conflict, there was 

a complete shutdown of electricity, banking, internet, and 

telephone services throughout the Tigray Region by the 

Government of Ethiopia, with government reports of 


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TPLF forces also destroying communications infrastructure, and subsequent service restorations have been limited; 

Whereas, in addition to the shutdown of telephone and internet services, which has severely limited the flow of information on the conflict and the humanitarian situation, 

journalists have been restricted from accessing much of 

the Tigray Region, several journalists have been arrested 

in connection to their coverage of the conflict, and one 

journalist working for the Tigray Mass Media Agency 

was killed; 

Whereas, although the Government of Ethiopia entered into 

an agreement with the United Nations on November 29, 

2020, to facilitate humanitarian access to the Tigray Region, that access remains limited; 

Whereas, on February 1, 2021, the Secretary General of the 

Norwegian Refugee Council stated, ‘‘Twelve weeks since 

the fighting began, the basic elements of a response on 

the scale needed are still not in place. It is false to say 

that aid is increasingly getting through. Aid has only 

gone to the places with little conflict and more limited 

needs and is not keeping pace with the humanitarian crisis as it inevitably grows over time.’’; 

Whereas, on February 6, 2021, the United Nations World 

Food Programme (WFP) announced a new agreement 

with the Government of Ethiopia to rapidly scale up the 

deployment of emergency food assistance while improving 

the process for reviewing and approving requests from 

United Nations and humanitarian partner agencies; 

Whereas humanitarian access to the refugee camps that were 

home to almost 100,000 Eritrean refugees at the start of 


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the conflict has been especially restricted, with the 

Hitsats and Shimelba camps still completely inaccessible, 

and the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that 

20,000 Eritrean refugees displaced from those camps remain unaccounted for; 

Whereas United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 

Filippo Grandi has expressed alarm about the ‘‘overwhelming number of disturbing reports of Eritrean refugees in Tigray being killed, abducted and forcibly returned to Eritrea’’; 

Whereas, in November 2020, four humanitarian workers, including one employee of the International Rescue Committee and three employees of the Danish Refugee Council, were killed at Hitsats refugee camp; 

Whereas challenges to access have significantly restricted the 

reporting and documentation of atrocities, but survivor 

and eye-witness testimony and satellite imagery have enabled reports to emerge of targeted violence or indiscriminate attacks against civilians committed by multiple parties to the conflict; 

Whereas examples of reported atrocities committed in the 

Tigray Region include the massacre in the town of Mai 

Kadra on November 9, 2020, in which, according to estimates from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission 

(EHRC), more than 600 civilians died from what the 

EHRC Chief Commissioner concluded was ‘‘for no reason 

other than their ethnicity,’’ and a mass killing in the city 

of Axum on November 28 through 29, 2020, which involved, according to reports from Amnesty International, 

the systematic killing of ‘‘hundreds of unarmed civilians’’ 

after Ethiopian and Eritrean troops retook the city; 


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Whereas United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila 

Patten has highlighted reports of sexual and genderbased violence, including a high number of alleged rapes 

in Mekelle; 

Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the United States Government publicly confirmed that Eritrean Defense Forces 

(EDF) are participating in the conflict in alliance with 

the ENDF and called for the immediate withdrawal of all 

EDF soldiers from the Tigray Region, and credible reports have emerged that EDF soldiers participating in 

the conflict have attacked civilians, including Eritrean 

refugees, and looted and destroyed homes and religious 

institutions; 

Whereas Ethiopia has been beset in recent years by multiple 

human rights and humanitarian challenges, including targeted ethnic violence, intercommunal conflict, natural disasters, and political unrest; 

Whereas, since mid-2020, the Office of the United Nations 

High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission 

have reported atrocities and a rise in ethnic and intercommunal violence in other parts of Ethiopia, including 

in the Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali, Afar, and 

Oromia regions; 

Whereas, according to international human rights organizations, during the conflict in the Tigray Region, ethnic 

Tigrayans throughout Ethiopia have been suspended 

from their jobs and prevented from leaving the country, 

and there are reports of surveillance and mass arrests of 

citizens of Ethiopia based on their ethnicity; 


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Whereas Ethiopia is undergoing a fragile democratic transition, with the postponed 2020 general elections rescheduled for June 2021, except in the Tigray Region, where 

elections have not yet been scheduled; 

Whereas the Government of Ethiopia has restricted the right 

of several opposition political parties to peacefully assemble, and a number of opposition leaders have been jailed 

since the summer of 2020, with varying degrees of due 

process violations and procedural delays in their trials; 

and 

Whereas the conflict in the Tigray Region occurs within the 

context of complicated regional and global dynamics featuring ongoing negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt, and 

Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia’s rapprochement with Eritrea, threats posed by the 

violent extremist organization Al-Shabaab, a struggle for 

influence and power among regional and global actors, increasingly hostile border disputes between Ethiopia and 

Sudan, and the fragile democratic transition and peace 

process in Sudan: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) strongly disapproves of the escalation of po3 litical tensions between the Government of Ethiopia 

4 and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) 

5 into armed conflict and condemns in the strongest 

6 terms all violence against civilians; 

7 (2) appreciates the willingness of Sudan to wel8 come refugees fleeing the conflict in the Tigray Re9 gion of Ethiopia; 


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1 (3) calls on the Government of Eritrea to im2 mediately and fully withdraw its military forces from 

3 Ethiopia; 

4 (4) calls for the swift and complete restoration 

5 of electricity, banking, telephone, and internet serv6 ices throughout the Tigray Region and other parts 

7 of Ethiopia where communications have been re8 stricted; 

9 (5) calls on the Government of Ethiopia to— 

10 (A) ensure that any apprehensions of 

11 TPLF members are carried out with the least 

12 possible use of force and that the rights to 

13 which those detained are entitled under Ethio14 pian and international law are fully respected; 

15 (B) release opposition leaders detained on 

16 the basis of their political activity as well as 

17 journalists detained on the basis of their report18 ing, and respect the rights of all Ethiopians to 

19 free expression and political participation, with20 out discrimination based on ethnicity, ideology, 

21 or political affiliation; and 

22 (C) convene a national dialogue inclusive of 

23 all nonviolent political parties, ethnic commu24 nities, religious groups, and civil society organi25 zations in Ethiopia to work toward the sustainVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:04 Mar 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR97.IS SR97

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1 able resolution of grievances and chart a demo2 cratic and peaceful path forward for the coun3 try; 

4 (6) urges all parties to the conflict to— 

5 (A) cease all hostilities, fully comply with 

6 international humanitarian law, and refrain 

7 from actions that could spread or escalate the 

8 conflict, particularly attacks on civilian targets; 

9 (B) make demonstrable progress to guar10 antee unfettered and immediate humanitarian 

11 access, for personnel and supplies, to areas af12 fected by the conflict, and take all possible 

13 steps to protect the safety of civilians, including 

14 refugees, displaced persons, and humanitarian 

15 aid workers; and 

16 (C) allow for, and cooperate with, inde17 pendent and transparent investigations of any 

18 alleged human rights abuses committed in the 

19 course of the conflict and hold perpetrators to 

20 account; and 

21 (7) urges the Secretary of State, the Secretary 

22 of the Treasury, and the Administrator of the 

23 United States Agency for International Develop24 ment, in coordination with the heads of other rel25 evant Federal departments and agencies, to— 


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1 (A) engage at the highest levels with lead2 ers of the Government of Ethiopia, the Govern3 ment of Eritrea, and the TPLF to encourage 

4 the full cessation of hostilities and the with5 drawal of Eritrean forces, mitigate the humani6 tarian crisis that has emerged from the conflict, 

7 and support an inclusive process of national 

8 dialogue and reconciliation; 

9 (B) immediately establish criteria to end 

10 the pause of all non-life-sustaining assistance to 

11 Ethiopia and support programming to meet im12 mediate humanitarian needs, including of refu13 gees and internally displaced persons, advance 

14 nonviolent conflict resolution and reconciliation, 

15 and aid a democratic transition in Ethiopia; 

16 (C) ensure that the call made by Secretary 

17 of State Blinken on February 27, 2021, for a 

18 ‘‘full, independent, international investigation 

19 into all reports of human rights violations, 

20 abuses, and atrocities’’ committed in the course 

21 of the conflict is realized and impose strict ac22 countability measures on those found respon23 sible; 

24 (D) take all possible diplomatic steps to 

25 prevent further ethnic-based violence and mass 


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1 atrocities, including by non-state armed groups, 

2 in Ethiopia; and 

3 (E) maintain close coordination with inter4 national allies and multilateral organizations re5 garding efforts to address the conflict in the 

6 Tigray Region and bring attention to the con7 flict in international fora, including the United 

8 Nations Security Council. 

Æ 


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