Ethiopia still has an opportunity to uphold human rights and ensure violators are brought to justice following the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) decision to withdraw all its international staff from the country.

Development Diaries reports that Ethiopian security forces unlawfully arrested, physically assaulted, and detained two staff members of the bank in October 2023 without charge or any official explanation.

The staff members were later released after the bank’s President, Akinwumi Adesina, contacted the highest levels of authority in the Ethiopian government.

It is understood that the bank requested a full and transparent investigation into the incident in November, with a high-level delegation sent to resolve the issue. However, the outcomes of the investigation have yet to be shared by the government of Ethiopia.

‘It also does not provide full confidence that all the African Development Bank’s employees feel safe and secure to carry out their duties and move around the country without fear of harassment’, AfDB’ said in a statement.

‘The African Development Bank remains particularly concerned that the Ethiopian government has, to date, not shared with the bank any report or details of investigations into the incident’.

This development contradicts Ethiopia’s human rights obligations as they relate to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which the country has ratified.

Development Diaries, therefore, calls on the government of Ethiopia to release the outcomes of the investigation into the matter and ensure that violators of human rights in the country are brought to justice.

Photo source: AfDB