Rebel groups in Ethiopia Sunday issued a joint statement criticising the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for financing a regime carrying out genocide against the people in the Amhara region.
The statement signed by four leaders of a rebel coalition under the “Fano” movement condemned the decision of the World Bank and IMF to finance the government as “ill-advised”.
“We, the Amhara Fano express our great dismay and disappointment by the decision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to approve over $10 billion in financing to the Abiy Ahmed led Prosperity Party regime in Ethiopia. This substantial financial support comes at a time when the Abiy regime is actively committing gross violations of internationally recognised human rights having mobilised all national resources to a deadly war campaign against its own citizens,” they said in a statement which is sent to the international financiers.
While noting that Fano is not against international cooperation, they said “this ill-advised and premature decision by the IMF and World Bank will not serve to support any homegrown reform agenda but will rather serve to finance the dying regime’s genocidal war against the Amhara people.”
They said over the past 15 months, various international organisations have documented a pattern of war crimes committed by armed forces of the Abiy regime against innocent men, women, children and elderly persons in Amhara Region and surrounding areas.
“Over this period tens of thousands of civilians have suffered under indiscriminate artillery shelling, deadly drone attacks, deliberate attacks on regional health infrastructure, sexual and gender-based violence, ethnic profiling and arbitrary arrest, detainment in concentration camps, and torture,” the statement read.
According to the statement, the financial support provided by the IMF and the World Bank to the regime engaged in such heinous acts is not only deeply troubling but also morally indefensible.
MG/as/APA
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