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Tag: VOA

It May be ‘Many Months’ Before Full Scale of Tigray Rapes Known, UN Official Says

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

“Testimonies of some rape survivors reveal the brutal and heinous war being waged on the bodies of women and girls,” Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said during a discussion about Tigray at Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security on Wednesday.

The U.N. says the majority of rapes reported have been committed by men in uniform. Cases reported have involved Ethiopian National Defense Forces, Eritrean Defense Forces, Amhara Special Forces, and other irregular armed groups or aligned militia.

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UN Security Council Calls for More Aid Access to Ethiopia’s Tigray

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

As the conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region enters its sixth month, the U.N. Security Council broke its silence Thursday to call for scaled-up humanitarian access and “a restoration of normalcy.

The Tigray interim administration estimates that at least 4.5 million of Tigray’s nearly 6 million people need humanitarian assistance. The United Nations has appealed for $1.5 billion to assist 16 million people in Tigray and across Ethiopia this year.

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VOA: U.N. rights chief agrees to Ethiopia request for joint Tigray inquiry

Posted on by Tech Support

Bachelet “responded positively” to a request from the state-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for joint investigations in Tigray, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Jonathan Fowler said on Wednesday.

“The U.N. Human Rights Office and the EHRC are now developing an investigation plan, which includes resources needed and practical modalities, in order to launch the missions as soon as possible,” Fowler said.

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VOA: UN Calls On Ethiopia to Allow Probe Into Alleged Mass Killings in Tigray

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

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. 

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VOA: US Report Documents Atrocities, Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray, NY Times Says

Posted on by Tech Support

An internal U.S. government report obtained by The New York Times says that Ethiopia is conducting “a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” under the cover of war in the Tigray region, an area largely controlled by Amhara militias in the northern part of the country.

The Times says the report, written earlier in February, describes “in stark terms a land of looted houses and deserted villages where tens of thousands of people are unaccounted for.”

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VOA: Tigray Victim Pleads for Justice After Eritrean Soldiers Allegedly Massacre Civilians

Posted on by Tech Support

“There are people who lost three or four people in our neighborhood,” Guesh told VOA’s Tigrigna service in one of the multiple interviews conducted with residents of Axum weeks before Amnesty International’s report. “Many people were killed, including monks in the monasteries.”

In the city, Guesh said, many young people were killed.

“Bodies in the city were laid out for three days because they didn’t have anyone to bury them. Some of the bodies were taken with a carriage after four days. My cousin was found after four days and they identified him using his identification card,” he added, making his cousin the third family member allegedly killed by Eritrean soldiers. All his family members were buried in one grave, he said. “I hope to get justice for my parents and my family.”

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VOA: Tigray Victim Pleas for Justice After Eritrean Soldiers Allegedly Massacre Civilians

Posted on by Sami Mulaw

“There are people who lost three or four people in our neighborhood,” Guesh told VOA’s Tigrigna service in one of the multiple interviews conducted with residents of Axum weeks before Amnesty International’s report. “Many people were killed, including monks in the monasteries.”

In the city, Guesh said, many young people were killed.

“Bodies in the city were laid out for three days because they didn’t have anyone to bury them. Some of the bodies were taken with a carriage after four days. My cousin was found after four days and they identified him using his identification card,” he added, making his cousin the third family member allegedly killed by Eritrean soldiers. All his family members were buried in one grave, he said. “I hope to get justice for my parents and my family.”

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VOA: Rights Groups Sound Alarm Over Safety of Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia

Posted on by Eyasu Berhe
  • Eritreans are being rounded up and returned to war-torn Tigray or are being deported to their homeland.
  • Refugees said some people in the camps were being forcibly returned to Eritrea.
  • UNHCR’s emergency response team in Ethiopia, told VOA via email that his organization has not yet been granted access to return to the four refugee camps in Tigray
  • State Department spokesperson: Credible reports of Eritrean military involvement in Tigray and view this as a grave development.
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