Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, issued the following statement on the Ethiopian government’s arrests of human rights lawyers Henok Aklilu and Michael Melake:

“I am concerned by the Ethiopian government’s recent arrest of human rights lawyers Henok Aklilu and Michael Melake, and am worried that it may signal backsliding. I hope and expect that Ethiopian authorities will afford them due process and fair treatment, and that Prime Minister Abiy and his government will not waver from the path of reform they have previously undertaken.  It is important that Ethiopia’s government protect the civil and political rights of all Ethiopians, regardless of ethnicity, and that it seek national harmony.”