ADDIS ABABA, 28 January, 2021 (TON): The soldiers from Eritrea should immediately leave the beset Tigray region, says United States.

Late Tuesday, a State Department statement cited,” credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses.

“There is also evidence of Eritrean soldiers forcibly returning Eritrean refugees from Tigray to Eritrea”, the statement said.

The statement indicated the Biden government is putting pressure on the Ethiopian administration. Ethiopia rates second in the most populous countries in Africa, with 114 million people.

The media reported witnesses that flee from the Tigray region for the Eritrean soldiers were looting, going house to house killing men and even acting as local authorities. The Eritreans have been fighting on the side of Ethiopian forces as they pursue the fugitive leaders of the Tigray region, though Ethiopia's government has denied their presence.

The stance on the part of the U.S. has shifted in contrast to the Trump administration that praised Eritrea for its ‘restraint’, when the conflict was in embryonic stages.

The new U.S. statement calls for an independent and transparent investigation into alleged abuses. ‘It remains unclear how many Eritrean soldiers are in Tigray, or precisely where’, it says.

It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. has addressed its demand directly to Eritrean officials. And the office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to questions.

The Eritrean soldiers number in the thousands, witnesses estimated.

Eritrean officials have not responded to questions. The information minister for Eritrea, one of the world's most secretive countries, this week said that ‘the rabid defamation campaign against Eritrea is on the rise again.’

The U.S. seeks to stop the fighting in Tigray immediately ‘full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access’ to the region, with Ethiopian forces often accompanying aid.

“We are gravely concerned by credible reports that hundreds of thousands of people may starve to death if urgent humanitarian assistance is not mobilized immediately”, the statement says.

The UN cited in its latest humanitarian update that it is receiving reports of rising hunger as there is “dire lack of access to food” in Tigray region, since many farmers in the largely agricultural region missed the harvest because of the fighting, and as ‘critical staff’ to scale up the humanitarian response can't access the region. 78% of the hospitals are not functional, besides, transport, electricity, banking and other links are yet to be restored in much of the region.