Arrests and harassment of journalists, opposition figures and activists in Ethiopia has risen this year, the war-torn country’s rights watchdog said, underlining “concerning” levels of violence despite a peace agreement.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report on the year to June noted “an increase in the arrest and harassment of media personnel, members of opposition political parties and civil society groups, raising concerns on the shrinking of civic space”.

The public body also decried a “nationwide blockade” in force since February 9 on social media platforms including YouTube, Telegram, Facebook, and TikTok, that has “restricted the right to freedom of expression and access to information”.

But the report praised the agreement that ended in November two years of a brutal war between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as “among the most notable positive developments” of the last 12 months.

The deal “brought relative peace in most parts of Tigray, as well as parts of Amhara and Afar regions”, the EHRC said.

The commission saw “significant and encouraging progress” in government moves to launch a process of “transitional justice” to handle crimes committed during the fighting.

But “conflict, insecurity, attacks by armed groups, and security measures by government forces continued to cause civilian deaths, bodily injury and displacement in all regions of Ethiopia”.

Source: The New Arab