Ethiopian and Eritrean forces committed war crimes during an offensive to take control of the town of Axum in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region late last year, with one massacre by Eritrean troops a potential crime against humanity, according to a report released by Amnesty International on Thursday.
Category: Eritrean Involvement
Daily Mail: Tigray official slams damage by troops from ‘neighbouring’ country
Troops from a “neighbouring country” destroyed factories and universities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray state, an official with the region’s interim administration told state media Thursday in an apparent reference to Eritrea.
Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.
He declared victory after pro-government troops took the regional capital Mekele in late November and appointed an interim government to take over from the TPLF leadership. Fighting has however persisted.
MSN: Amnesty report describes Axum massacre in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed “many hundreds” of people, the large majority men, in a massacre in late November in the Ethiopian city of Axum, Amnesty International says in a new report, echoing the findings of an Associated Press story last week and citing more than 40 witnesses.
Crucially, the head of the government-established Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Daniel Bekele. says the Amnesty findings “should be taken very seriously.” The commission’s own preliminary findings “indicate the killing of an as yet unknown number of civilians by Eritrean soldiers” in Axum, its statement said.
The Amnesty report on what might be the deadliest massacre of Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict describes the soldiers gunning down civilians as they fled, lining up men and shooting them in the back, rounding up “hundreds, if not thousands” of men for beatings and refusing to allow those grieving to bury the dead.
usnews: Hundreds of Buildings Burned Around Tigray Town, Research Group Says
Fires that appear to have been deliberately set destroyed more than 500 structures this week in and around Ethiopia’s Gijet town, an analysis of satellite imagery shared with Reuters has found, adding credence to reports of continued conflict in parts of the northern region of Tigray.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory over a rebellious regional force, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), at the end of November after its fighters withdrew from the region’s main cities and towns. But sporadic fighting continues in some parts of Tigray, according to residents and United Nations assessments.
Tghat: Dutch aid workers – The outside world needs to know what’s going on in Tigray
His first impression on the street in Mekele: “Stress. If something small happens at all, panic immediately ensues. During that week I had to stay in my hotel room for two more days. Tigrayers are said to have erected barricades on the streets in the city. The military responded immediately. Everyone had to stay in. The roads were deserted and the shops closed. I heard that several people were shot.”
Geneva: Statement by the United States on the Human Rights Situation in Eritrea
While we welcome the release of imprisoned members of religious groups, we are troubled that the government has prevented many religious groups from legally registering, and their members are penalized for exercising their faith.
We remain concerned by reports of indefinite and arbitrary detention, particularly of individuals arrested for exercising freedoms of expression, religion or belief, or the right to peaceful assembly.
We urge the government to reinstate the 18-month national service limit and provide alternatives for conscientious objectors.
Our question is the following: Does the Eritrean military have sufficient control over its troops to prevent them from committing human rights abuses?
Trouw: Ethiopië verliest regie over Tigray waar gemoord, geplunderd en verkracht wordt
De strijd in de Ethiopische provincie Tigray gaat onverminderd door, maar niemand weet wat er precies gebeurt. Twee Nederlandse hulpverleners die onlangs in het gebied aanwezig waren vertellen hun verhaal.
Al Jazeera: 7,000 seek Sudan asylum after fleeing western Ethiopia violence
At least 7,000 people who fled escalating ethnic violence in western Ethiopia have sought asylum in neighbouring Sudan, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said, amid heightened tensions between the two neighbouring countries.
Violence in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region is separate from the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has sent more than 61,000 Ethiopians into Sudan’s provinces of al-Qadarif and Kassala since fighting erupted in November.
Devex: EU envoy says Ethiopia in ‘denial’ over Tigray
When it comes to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the federal government in Addis Ababa has no common understanding of events and is in “denial” over the scale of the problem, said Pekka Haavisto, European Union envoy, on Tuesday.
With negligible humanitarian access to the Tigray region since fighting broke out in November, Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, traveled to the region recently to assess the situation on behalf of the EU. He met with Ethiopian government ministers and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and he visited the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan.
Barron’s: EU Envoy Warns Ethiopia Tigray Crisis ‘Out Of Control’
Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto warned Tuesday that the crisis in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region appears “out of control”, after visiting the country on behalf of the EU.
“You have come to the situation which is militarily and human rights-wise, humanitarian-wise very out of control,” Haavisto told journalists in Brussels.
Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.