Top U.S. diplomat Blinken demands change in Ethiopia's Tigray

© Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin AbdallahFILE PHOTO: Ethiopians cross into Sudan as they flee the fighting to settle in the Hamdayet village on the Sudan-Ethiopia border

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Eritrean forces in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region must withdraw, saying the situation is unacceptable and must change.

"We need to get an independent investigation into what took place there, and we need some kind of process, a reconciliation process so that the country can move forward," Blinken told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Leslie Adler)