U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman represents an east-metro Denver congressional district with a high concentration of Ethiopian immigrants, so it was little surprise that he takes a keen interest in affairs in Africa.

Wednesday he applauded the Ethiopian government’s pledge to release political prisoners and close a Maekelawi detention center where people were tortured. Coffman called it “a step in the right direction.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman represents an east-metro Denver congressional district with a high concentration of Ethiopian immigrants, so it is little surprise that he takes a keen interest in affairs in Africa.

Wednesday he applauded the Ethiopian government’s pledge to release political prisoners and close a Maekelawi detention center where people were tortured. Coffman called it “a step in the right direction.”

“All human rights violations by the Ethiopian government must come to an end,” Coffman said in a statement. “The Ethiopian government has engaged in terrorists acts against its own people and such behavior is unacceptable and I will continue, as I have, to make sure that the United States holds the Ethiopian government responsible for all of its promises in respecting the human rights of all of the Ethiopian people.”

Ethiopia, traditionally, has been an ally of the West.

Coffman strongly supported H.R. 128, which condemned Ethiopian security service’s use of excessive force that killed protesters and led to arrest of opponents of the nation’s regime. The resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee in July.

Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn told reporters Tuesday that he hoped the gesture would improve the political dialogue after mass arrests of government protesters.

Amnesty International said it hoped the move would bring “the end of an era of bloody repression in Ethiopia.”

Primarily because of resettlement programs for refugees decades ago, metro Denver communities are home to an estimated 40,000 African immigrants, and the communities are proving to be well-organized and influential in politics and business.