Canada, Sweden and Eritrea are pressuring Ethiopia to reveal details regarding the foreign nationals it has allegedly detained in secret prisons in collaboration with the FBI and CIA. The existence of prisons in which US government agencies have interrogated individuals suspected of having ties to al Qaeda was disclosed on Tuesday after Human Rights Watch reports claimed that the US, Kenya, and Ethiopia were cooperating with the transitional government of Somalia to detain refugees from the recent conflict there.

Among those believed to be imprisoned in Ethiopia are Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal, three Eritrean citizens who were turned over to Somalia after their arrest by Kenyan authorities in January, and two Swedish citizens. Nationals of France, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Morocco and Tunisia are also thought to be detained there. Investigations of the US rendition program have so far focused primarily on Europe, where reports revealed that sixteen EU member states were involved at some level in the operation of CIA secret prisons and rendition flights.