War crimes still being committed in Ethiopia, says UN
Commission finds rights violations are still happening in Tigray nearly a year after the end of war
18 September 2023 - 17:54
byGabrielle Tétrault-Farber
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Geneva — War crimes and crimes against humanity are still being committed in Ethiopia nearly a year after government and regional forces from Tigray agreed to end fighting, UN experts said in a report published on Monday.
Thousands died in the two-year conflict, which formally came to an end in November 2022. Both sides accused each other of atrocities, including massacres, rape and arbitrary detentions, but each denied responsibility for systemic abuses.
“While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any comprehensive peace,” Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, said in a statement accompanying the report.
“The situation in Ethiopia remains extremely grave,” he added.
In its report, the commission said human rights violations in Tigray are “grave and ongoing”, and said there have been attacks by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) against civilians.
Eritrea, which sent in troops to fight alongside Ethiopian government forces during the conflict, has rejected accusations from residents and rights groups that its soldiers committed abuses in Tigray.
The commission’s report said violations “have been abetted or tolerated by the federal government, which has failed in its legal duty to protect its population from violations by a foreign army, or by Amhara militia present in the areas of western and southern Tigray”.
The report said the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, EDF and allied regional special forces carried out a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilian populations.
“It finds that members of these forces committed the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, rape, acts of a sexual nature of comparable gravity, sexual slavery, enslavement, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty,” the report said.
Ethiopia’s government and its armed forces have repeatedly denied that their soldiers committed widespread crimes on their own or with Eritrean forces and have promised to investigate complaints of individual abuses.
Authorities from the Ethiopian region of Amhara have also denied that their forces committed atrocities in neighbouring Tigray.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
War crimes still being committed in Ethiopia, says UN
Commission finds rights violations are still happening in Tigray nearly a year after the end of war
Geneva — War crimes and crimes against humanity are still being committed in Ethiopia nearly a year after government and regional forces from Tigray agreed to end fighting, UN experts said in a report published on Monday.
Thousands died in the two-year conflict, which formally came to an end in November 2022. Both sides accused each other of atrocities, including massacres, rape and arbitrary detentions, but each denied responsibility for systemic abuses.
“While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any comprehensive peace,” Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, said in a statement accompanying the report.
“The situation in Ethiopia remains extremely grave,” he added.
In its report, the commission said human rights violations in Tigray are “grave and ongoing”, and said there have been attacks by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) against civilians.
Eritrea, which sent in troops to fight alongside Ethiopian government forces during the conflict, has rejected accusations from residents and rights groups that its soldiers committed abuses in Tigray.
The commission’s report said violations “have been abetted or tolerated by the federal government, which has failed in its legal duty to protect its population from violations by a foreign army, or by Amhara militia present in the areas of western and southern Tigray”.
The report said the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, EDF and allied regional special forces carried out a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilian populations.
“It finds that members of these forces committed the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, rape, acts of a sexual nature of comparable gravity, sexual slavery, enslavement, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty,” the report said.
Ethiopia’s government and its armed forces have repeatedly denied that their soldiers committed widespread crimes on their own or with Eritrean forces and have promised to investigate complaints of individual abuses.
Authorities from the Ethiopian region of Amhara have also denied that their forces committed atrocities in neighbouring Tigray.
Reuters
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