Four media workers recently arrested in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region were released on Wednesday, a translator working for the Agence France-Presse (AFP), which was part of the group held, reported.
“All journalists and translators have been released without charge,” Abebe Gebrehiwot Yihdego, deputy head of Tigray’s interim administration, told Reuters.
The BBC confirmed the release of its reporter Girmay Gebru, of the broadcaster’s Tigrinya language service, in a tweet.
“They released us today. They said nothing about why they released us. But they said they have decided to release us,” the translator, Fitsum Berhane, told AFP.
Fitsum and Alula Akalu, a translator working for the Financial Times, were arrested on Saturday after three days of reporting on the Tigray conflict.
The other two prisoners were BBC journalist Girmay Gebru and Temrat Yemane, a local journalist.
Officials have not given any reasons for the arrests and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday on the decision to release the men.
Both AFP and the Financial Times had received permission from the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority and the Ministry of Peace to work in Tigray, where media access has been tightly restricted since hostilities began in November.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, has said the military campaign is aimed at leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s long-running party.
But while Abiy said in late November that military operations were “completed” after federal troops entered the regional capital Mekele, the best TPLF officials are still on the run and fighting has continued.
At the same time, global unrest is growing among reports of atrocities against civilians and fears of a spiral of humanitarian catastrophe.
The United States on Tuesday expressed concern over the arrests of the four media workers and said the procedure was incompatible with the government’s commitment to allow the international press to operate in Tigray.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said authorities should “take reliable charges or drop them”.
Fitsum told AFP on Wednesday that soldiers entered his home and accused him of supporting the TPLF.
“They said a lot of things about how I am a member of the TPLF and have helped the party since the war started and gave them information,” he said.
“But I denied everything because I do not know what they are talking about.”
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