ALARM AS ETHIOPIA RETURNS REFUGEES

In a development the United Nations called “disturbing,” Ethiopia on Friday said it is returning thousands of refugees who ran from camps in its Tigray region as war swept through, putting them on buses back to the border area with Eritrea, the country the refugees originally f led.

The news came as the United States said it believes Eritrean troops are active in Ethiopia, a “grave development.” A State Department spokesperson in an email cited credible reports and said “we urge that any such troops be withdrawn immediately.”

The U.N. refugee chief, Filippo Grandi, said that “over the last month we have received an overwhelming number of disturbing reports of Eritrean refugees in Tigray being killed, abducted and forcibly returned to Eritrea. If confirmed, these actions would constitute a major violation of international law.” He said his agency has met with some refugees in the capital and he again urged unhindered humanitarian access to Tigray.

Ethiopia said its recently completed military offensive against the now-fugitive Tigray government “was not a direct threat” to the 96,000

“misinformed” Eritrean refugees — even as aid groups said four staffers had been killed in the fighting, at least one in a refugee camp.

The U.N. refugee agency said it hadn’t been informed in advance of the Eritrean refugees’ return. “We received alarming messages from Eritreans living abroad and when we looked into them, ascertained that several hundred refugees had been put on buses this morning to be returned to the Tigray region,” it said.

Any forced return, it said, “would be absolutely unacceptable.”