Ethiopia Releases Eight Kenyan Rendition Victims

Two days after Human Rights Watch issued a report on Ethiopia's detention of rendition victims without charge, Ethiopia released eight of the nine detained Kenyan men. These men had been held by Ethiopian authorities without charge for more than 20 months. The wide international media coverage our report generated appeared to push Kenya and Ethiopia to a tipping point, leading the two countries to negotiate the detainees' release. Our report examines the 2007 rendition from Kenya to Somalia and then to Ethiopia of at least 90 men, women, and children from 18 countries who were fleeing the armed conflict in Somalia. CIA and FBI agents interviewed several of the rendered detainees in Ethiopia, making the United States complicit in the abuse of these detainees. Human Rights Watch was able to interview by phone several of the now-released detainees while they were in Ethiopian custody. We documented the treatment of these men, as well as the previously unreported experiences of other recently released detainees, several of whom were brutally tortured. The whereabouts of at least 22 other detainees remains unknown. We will continue to exert pressure on the Ethiopian government for their release.