Justice for Tigray: An Urgent Call for the Enforcement of the Pretoria CoHA and Independent Accountability for Genocide Perpetrators

Five Years of Agony, Resilience, and the Unyielding Call for Justice
Security and Justice for Tigrayans (SJT), a global organization representing the Tigrayan diaspora, along with the undersigned organizations, solemnly commemorates the fifth anniversary of the Tigray Genocide — a brutal and calculated war of annihilation unleashed on November 4, 2020. We honor the memory of the victims, stand with the survivors, and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to justice and the global recognition of the crimes committed against the people of Tigray.

Five years have passed since the world first witnessed the horror unleashed upon the people of Tigray. Yet justice remains a distant dream, buried beneath layers of political indifference, calculated silence, and the cruel normalization of atrocity. This day is not only one of remembrance. It is a day of moral reckoning, a global call to confront the world’s failure to act against one of the gravest crimes of the 21st century: a genocide that shattered humanity and tore through the very fabric of human existence.

The architects in this genocidal war sought nothing less than the annihilation of an entire people. Close to a million innocent lives were mercilessly slaughtered — mothers, fathers, children, and elders — all extinguished simply for being Tigrayans. Their lives were cut short in the most unimaginable and horrific ways, leaving behind a legacy of collective trauma and unspeakable sorrow. The echoes of their silenced voices still drift through the wind — a haunting testament to humanity’s boundless cruelty and the world’s heartbreaking indifference.

Approximately 2.2 million people were uprooted and internally displaced from their homes, cast into a relentless struggle for survival. Nearly 70,000 fled through hunger, disease, and despair in search of refuge in Sudan. Five years later, they remain trapped in tattered tents and squalid settlements, enduring unimaginable misery — exposed to communicable diseases and the harsh extremes of weather: rain, flood, cold, and scorching heat. Their days are marked by hunger, their nights by fear — surviving not through aid or justice, but through the sheer will to live in a world that has turned its back on them.

Families have been torn apart—their loved ones swallowed by mass graves or the endless abyss of displacement. Mothers still wait for sons and daughters who will never return. Children still search for parents whose names have been erased from the living. The crimes continue, moving from one heartbreaking act to another. A recent report by the Commission of Inquiry on the Tigray Genocide, titled “A Report on War-Induced Genocidal Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Tigray, Ethiopia,” revealed devastating findings: 59.5% of respondents (286,250 out of 481,201) experienced at least one form of gender-based violence, and 58.2% of these survivors (166,621 out of 286,250) were subjected to horrific acts of sexual violence. These include sexual slavery and gang rapes so brutal, so inhumane, and so systematic that they defy human comprehension—the victims’ bodies turned into instruments of humiliation, their pain weaponized in a war against identity itself.

Entire towns and villages were reduced to ashes, and Tigray’s civilization — its ancient churches, sacred manuscripts, and rich cultural heritage — was methodically targeted for erasure. This was not merely a war on a people, but an assault on memory, dignity, and existence itself — an attempt to erase centuries of history and silence the very soul of Tigray.

Tigray’s economic infrastructure was deliberately destroyed, vandalized, and plundered. Factories were stripped bare, food grains were burned, hospitals and schools were destroyed and looted, and public institutions dismantled with ruthless intent. The engines of livelihood and progress — painstakingly built over generations — were reduced to ruins. It was a campaign not only to kill the people, but to crush their capacity to recover, leaving behind a landscape of desolation and despair where hope itself was meant to perish. And yet, five years on, the perpetrators of these atrocities walk free. The blood of innocents still cries out from the soil of Tigray — but the world has chosen silence over justice, and indifference over moral courage.

Pretoria’s False Peace: Silence Without Justice
It has been three years since the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) was signed — an accord that promised peace, accountability, and relief for a war-weary people. But instead of peace, the agreement has become a veil for continued suffering.

Yes, the guns may have fallen silent, but the violence endures in cruel and insidious forms — through starvation, displacement, and calculated political sabotage designed to fracture Tigray’s unity and force its people into submission and humiliation. The promises of the Pretoria CoHA have been utterly betrayed — smothered by inaction, deceit, and willful neglect. Five years on, hundreds of thousands of IDPs remain trapped in camps, unable to return to their homes. Tigray’s territorial integrity remains violated, with vast regions still under the control of invading forces who continue to commit brutal crimes with complete impunity. Eighty percent of schools and healthcare facilities lie in ruins. Children have been denied education for years, their future held hostage by the world’s neglect.

In the aftermath of the CoHA, Tigray’s wounds still bleed. Its recovery remains crippled by global indifference and the world’s failure to act with conscience. The CoHA did not bring peace; it delivered a quieter torment — a slow, suffocating continuation of war by other means. It has become a calculated campaign to break a people’s spirit without the echo of gunfire, to silence Tigray through starvation, isolation, and despair.

To the dismay of many, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) terminated the International
Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) — the only independent body mandated to investigate the atrocities committed in Tigray. This decision is a lasting stain on the conscience of the international community. ICHREE represented a glimmer of hope for victims seeking truth and accountability for crimes committed by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Amhara forces and militias. Its abrupt termination, and the subsequent transfer of “investigations” to the very perpetrators, is not only unconscionable but an act of complicity in injustice. This dereliction of duty by the UNHRC reveals a grim truth: global institutions once created to defend human rights have become instruments of appeasement. Allowing perpetrators to investigate themselves is a mockery of justice and a betrayal of every victim whose blood still stains the soil of Tigray.

A Call to the Conscience of Humanity
As we mark the fifth year of the Tigray Genocide, we refuse to let memory fade into silence. We refuse to accept impunity as the world’s response to genocide. We refuse to let Tigray’s suffering become a forgotten tragedy.

This commemoration is not only about the pain endured — it is about the unbreakable spirit of the Tigrayan people. Despite unimaginable suffering, Tigrayans continue to rise with dignity, courage, and faith in justice. Their resilience is an indictment of global indifference and a testament to the endurance of hope against all odds.

Our Demands to the International Community
We, the undersigned, call upon the international community to act decisively — not with words, but with meaningful and immediate action:

1. Reinstate the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) and empower it to conduct an independent, thorough, and impartial investigation into the Tigray Genocide. Justice cannot be delegated to perpetrators.
2. Enforce the full implementation of the Pretoria CoHA — including the withdrawal of invading forces from Tigray, the restoration of its constitutional borders, and the protection of its people from continued aggression.
3. Guarantee the safe, voluntary return and reintegration of displaced people with full humanitarian access, protection, and support to rebuild their lives and communities.
4. Launch a globally coordinated reconstruction initiative for Tigray, prioritizing healthcare, education,
5. housing, and livelihoods — to rebuild not only structures, but shattered lives.

Five Years On: The Moral Verdict Is Clear
Five years after the genocide began, the people of Tigray still await justice. Their suffering stands as a mirror to our collective humanity — a test of whether the world truly means the words “never again.” History will judge those who remained silent in the face of genocide. But it will also remember those who spoke out, who stood firm, and who refused to let truth be buried beneath the rubble of politics and indifference.

Let this fifth anniversary not be another year of mourning alone — but the beginning of renewed global solidarity, accountability, and moral awakening.

The world must act — not tomorrow, not someday — but now.

Signatories:

1. Security and Justice for Tigrayans (SJT)
2. Omna Tigray
3. DMV Tigray Taskforce
4. Tigray Community Association DMV
5. Union of Tigrayans in North America (UTNA)
6. Tigray Women Association DMV
7. Tigray Disaster Relief Fund
8. Health Professionals Network for Tigray (HPN4Tigray)
9. Irob Anina Civil Society
10. Tigray Art Collective
11. Extending Access & Systems Enhancement (EASE)