(16 Nov 2021) Thousands of Tigrayans in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and across Africa's second most populous country have already been detained, and fears of more such detentions soared as authorities ordered landlords to register tenants' identities with police.
Meanwhile, men armed with sticks were seen on some streets as volunteer groups sought out Tigrayans to report them.
Ethiopia's government says it is detaining people suspected of supporting the forces from the Tigray region who are approaching Addis Ababa following a year-long war with Ethiopian forces that was triggered by a political falling-out.
But human rights groups, lawyers, relatives and the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission say detentions - including of children and the elderly - appear to be on the basis of ethnicity.
The Associated Press has found that American and British citizens have been swept up in Ethiopia's mass detentions of ethnic Tigrayans under a new state of emergency in the country's escalating war.
But the overwhelming majority of Tigrayans detained have been local, some of them high-profile.
Since the state of emergency was enacted in Ethiopia which allowed the authorities to arrest essentially anyone they suspect of collaboration or support for the TPLF, analysts worry that a call by activists and vigilante groups has meant that thousands of mass arrests of Tigrayans are taking place across the country.
Experts are concerned that if the Tigryan forces continue to advance we are likely to see increased repression and mob violence against Tigrayan civilians potentially across the country.
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