Ethiopian troops and their allies in the restive northern province of Tigray face a growing insurgency fuelled by a series of massacres and other violence targeting civilians.
Category: Weaponized SGBV
mg: Investigate crimes in Tigray now, or risk a fragmented Ethiopia
I was arrested on the evening of my birthday.
After nearly four months of violent conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the government has admitted that widespread crimes have been committed, including massacres and sexual violence, as well as widespread looting and the destruction of refugee camps. Despite credible reports that members of the Ethiopian armed forces have perpetrated some of this violence, the government has rejected calls for external involvement in investigations, arguing that it is capable of conducting impartial investigations and holding perpetrators to account.
dw: Anger and collective trauma scar Ethiopia’s Tigray region
The conflict in Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia, has mostly been unfolding under a media blackout since early November. Thousands of civilians have likely died as a result of the crisis.
aljazeera: UN alleges war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray, urges Eritrea exit
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.
npr: 9 Things To Know About The Unfolding Crisis In Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
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.
msn: UN aid chief calls for Eritrean forces to leave Tigray
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned Thursday that “a campaign of destruction” is taking place in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray province, saying at least 4.5 million people need assistance and demanding that forces from neighboring Eritrea accused of committing atrocities in Tigray leave Ethiopia.
ohchr: Ethiopia: Persistent, credible reports of grave violations in Tigray underscore urgent need for human rights access – Bachelet
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.”
VOA: UN Calls On Ethiopia to Allow Probe Into Alleged Mass Killings in Tigray
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights called on Ethiopia to permit an investigation into allegations of murders and sexual violence in the Tigray region, which may amount to war crimes.
“We urge the government of Ethiopia to grant my office and other independent monitors access to the Tigray region, with a view to establishing the facts and contributing to accountability, regardless of the affiliation of the perpetrators,” Michelle Bachelet said Thursday in a statement.
Federal troops deployed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have been fighting forces of the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Thousands of people have been killed in the area where hundreds of thousands of people were dependent on food aid before the conflict began, according to the U.N.
Aljazeera: Trauma, anger as Tigrayans recount Eritrea troops’ ‘grave crimes’
December 4 is a date that fills Mona Lisa Abraha with horror. It was then, the 18-year-old says, that Eritrean soldiers entered her village of Tembin in Ethiopia’s embattled region of Tigray.
“They tried to rape me and I was thrown to the ground. Then, one of the soldiers fired bullets to scare me, but they hit my hand and then fired another bullet that went through my arm,” Abraha recalls from a hospital bed on the outskirts of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.
“I was bleeding for hours. Then, I had my arm amputated,” she says, before breaking down in tears.
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.