Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that three senior members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, including the former Ethiopian Foreign Minister, have been killed by the Ethiopian military on 13 January; and what representations they have made to the government of Ethiopia about those deaths.

We are aware of reports that senior members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, including the former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin (who served as Foreign Minister 1991 to 2010), were killed on 13 January by Ethiopian Security Forces. Our Embassy in Addis Ababa continues to try and corroborate and verify reporting from the Tigray region but significant barriers remain, such as continued insecurity and limitations on communications in the region.

We have consistently underlined the overriding need to protect civilians and adhere to international law and international human rights law. We continue to call for independent, international, investigations into allegations of human right abuses and violations. We have been clear that perpetrators of those incidents that are proven must be held to account, whoever they may be. We will continue to make these points in upcoming conversations with the Government of Ethiopia.