Madam President, last Sunday, the Irreecha festival in Ethiopia ended in a massacre. According to Oromo sources, 678 people were killed by security forces shooting into the crowd in cold blood and causing a stampede.

Another 700 people have been murdered in Ethiopia in the past 10 months, as marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa denounced at the Rio Olympics. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and People's Rights have called for independent observers to enter the country and assess the situation and for an impartial investigation.

The EU, which pays lots of taxpayers' money to the country via ODA, is silent. That silence is deafening. Will you, Mr President, speak up on our behalf in solidarity with the repressed people of Ethiopia and call for an international independent investigation into the Irreecha massacre and the ongoing repression in Ethiopia?