The United Nations has said Ethiopian authorities detained 72 drivers working for the World Food Programme (WFP) in the country’s conflict-torn north. The development on Wednesday came a day after the UN reported the arrests of 22 of its employees in the capital, Addis Ababa, as international alarm grows over reported widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans amid an escalation in the fighting. A UN spokesperson said the latest detentions had occurred in the capital of Afar province, on the only functional road leading into the Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands of people live in famine-like conditions, according to the world body. “We are advocating with the government to ensure their safety and the full protection of their legal and human rights.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA