After Ethiopian media reported that the federal government had issued a strict order for banks to close all accounts opened in the Tigray region, the politician Jawar Mohammed warned that the measure amounts to collective punishment.

In a message posted on his social media page, he said that if the information is accurate, the decision is not aimed at any specific security or financial objective but is a severe economic penalty directed at millions of innocent citizens.

He said it is deeply troubling that ordinary people in Tigray would be barred from their monthly salaries, their savings, remittances sent from abroad and their business income simply because their accounts are held in the region.

Saying the public is being forced to bear economic hardship over a political conflict it did not choose, Jawar argued the step would make daily life still harder for families already living in fear and instability.

Noting that residents of the region endured similar banking restrictions and economic pressure during the earlier destructive war in Tigray, he warned that repeating that history would deepen public mistrust and make efforts to ease political tension far more difficult.