Eritrean forces shot dead hundreds of children and civilians in a November massacre in neighbouring Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
Friday’s report was the second major analysis on Eritrean abuses in the town of Axum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the past week.
Senior figures have urged Eritrea to leave the region, saying mass atrocities were being committed and millions of people could go hungry without assistance.
Eritrean forces shot dead hundreds of children and civilians in a November massacre in neighbouring Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.
It was the second major report on Eritrean abuses in the town of Axum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the past week.
The United Nations on Thursday alleged possible crimes against humanity in Ethiopia’s Tigray region including by Eritrean troops, as it urged a withdrawal by the neighbouring country, which denies involvement.
The UN also warned of potentially catastrophic hunger as it pleaded for urgent humanitarian access, but divisions at the UN Security Council stopped the international community from showing a united front.
Eritrean armed forces massacred scores of civilians, including children as young as 13, in the historic town of Axum in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations should urgently establish an independent inquiry into war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the region to pave the way for accountability, and Ethiopian authorities should grant it full and immediate access.
On November 19, Ethiopian and Eritrean forces indiscriminately shelled Axum, killing and wounding civilians. For a week after taking control of the town, the forces shot civilians and pillaged and destroyed property, including healthcare facilities. After Tigray militia and Axum residents attacked Eritrean forces on November 28, Eritrean forces, in apparent retaliation, fatally shot and summarily executed several hundred residents, mostly men and boys, over a 24-hour period.
For months, a conflict in Ethiopia between the government in Addis Ababa and a defiant region has cost thousands of lives and displaced at least a million people.
Despite the increasing brutality of the conflict in Tigray, until now, it has been largely overlooked by the outside world. But attention and concern is growing with news of alleged atrocities and a worsening refugee crisis.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday stressed the urgent need for an objective, independent assessment of the facts on the ground in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, given the persistent reports of serious human rights violations and abuses she continues to receive.
“Deeply distressing reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property by all parties continue to be shared with us, as well as reports of continued fighting in central Tigray in particular,” Bachelet said. “Credible information also continues to emerge about serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Tigray in November last year.”
The UN rights chief says that her office has corroborated grave violations that could amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, including by Eritrean troops.
Michelle Bachelet stressed in a statement on Thursday the urgent need for an independent investigation into the situation in Tigray, which has been rocked by months of fighting.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday stressed the urgent need for an objective, independent assessment of the facts on the ground in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, given the persistent reports of serious human rights violations and abuses she continues to receive.
“Deeply distressing reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property by all parties continue to be shared with us, as well as reports of continued fighting in central Tigray in particular,” Bachelet said. “Credible information also continues to emerge about serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict in Tigray in November last year.”
United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Ethiopia on Thursday to grant U.N. monitors access to the Tigray region to investigate reports of continuing killings and sexual violence that may amount to war crimes.
